Pacific Power is using drones this summer to inspect equipment and facilities in Washington, Oregon and California in the hopes of preventing forest fires.
Although Pacific Power has no customers in Clark County, it owns 542 acres near Yale and Merwin reservoirs and 640 acres in the Lewis River Basin, along with 5,100 acres between Mount St. Helens and Swift Reservoir as part of its hydroelectric generation facilities on the North Fork Lewis River.
“We’re still using our linemen and helicopters and other ways to monitor equipment, but the drones offer us another opportunity to look at areas that need repair,” Pacific Power spokesperson Kim Lippert said. “It’s essentially another tool in our toolbox.”
Lippert said drones allow for a closer, more detailed look using infrared images, high-resolution photographs and video footage of hard-to-reach areas. If equipment problems are detected, Pacific Power can deploy repair crews immediately.
Summer weather creates ideal conditions for drone inspections, Lippert said, although storms can ground the fleet. Currently, Pacific Power drones are being used for inspections in Washington’s Lewis River Basin. Drones will also be used near Burns, Ore., and Roseburg, Ore., through Aug. 16.
Pacific Power has been using drones in Southern Oregon and Northern California since July 22, Lippert said. She could not say if Pacific Power crews have already extinguished any small brushfires discovered during drone flights. Drone inspections are intended to prevent fires before they start.
The detailed information gathered by drones offers an additional layer of defense against conflagrations like the 2020 Camp Fire in California, ignited with a spark from Pacific Gas & Electric’s faulty transmission line. The fire burned through 223,000 acres and caused an estimated $400 billion in losses. In June 2023, a Multnomah County, Ore., jury found PacifiCorp at fault for the Santiam-Beachie, Echo Mountain, South Obenchain and 242 fires. (Pacific Power, PacifiCorp and Pacific Gas & Electric are all owned by Berkshire Hathaway Energy.)
Although Lippert couldn’t offer specifics, she said “drone inspections have discovered some possible issues” in Southwest Washington. After problems are spotted, they go through a “validation process,” Lippert said, then repairs are scheduled.
Clark Public Utilities has been using drones since 2019 and currently employs two certified drone operators, said spokesman Dameon Pesanti. He said drone flights are a useful fire mitigation tool when paired with aggressive vegetation management and regular inspections by helicopter.
Drones offer a particular advantage in heavily forested and rural areas, Pesanti said, although direct comparisons between Clark and Pacific Power are problematic because Pacific Power’s infrastructure stretches across many states whereas Clark Public Utilities serves only Clark County.
“It’s much easier for us to respond quickly and precisely than it is for Pacific Power,” Pesanti said. “Our grid is monitored around the clock and any time there is a fault or interruption there are alerts that come up in our system.”
Bonneville Power, which operates 15,000 circuit miles in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana, uses helicopters as part of its wildfire mitigation plan, relying in part on aerial patrols to identify equipment that might spark. Helicopters are combined with regular maintenance and an automatic shut-off system if tree limbs have fallen onto lines.
