In October, Entergy’s incident response team kicked off the company’s first-ever wildfire symposium, sharing knowledge with Pacific Gas and Electric Company, an industry leader in wildfire response.
The three-day symposium with PG&E was an opportunity for the incident response team, Power Delivery Customer Service and other Entergy stakeholders to discuss wildfire response and other topics that the company’s incident response team continually works on to improve preparedness and response capabilities for operations and future preparedness.
“We attended a wildfire conference earlier in the year, and we knew our entire organization could benefit from learning from the PG&E team,” said Gino Spadafore, Entergy lead incident response specialist. “We created the symposium so we could collaborate and share knowledge with a utility that leads the industry in wildfire response.”
Each day featured five, 50-minute sessions, ensuring comprehensive coverage of key aspects of incident response, with a heavy focus on wildfire preparedness and response.
“While our overall wildfire risk is different from our peers in the West, partnership with PG&E and other Western utilities has been tremendously helpful in establishing our wildfire mitigation and response program,” said Dakin DuBroc Entergy director incident response. “We are so appreciative of their partnership in this area, and we plan to expand this concept to other incident response topics in the future so we can continue to learn from one another.”
Participants also discussed cutting-edge strategies and case studies that will help us sharpen our response protocols and enhance collaboration across the industry.
“We each have different threat conditions that make our threats unique,” said Jeff Millar, senior director for emergency field operations, PG&E. “We don’t have all the answers, but we learn from each other’s bumps and bruises to strengthen the entire industry.”
As utility companies continue to navigate new environmental challenges, preparing for incidents like wildfires reminds us of the importance of sharing industry best practices and fostering innovative solutions to secure a sustainable future for our company and customers.
