How much should transmission facility owners be compensated for wildfire mitigation?

Separate funds are increasingly being requested for wildfire mitigation plans (WMPs) whose activities were previously managed within a transmission facility owner's (TFO's) capital and operating budgets. Experience from a regulatory proceeding where a TFO in Alberta, Canada, sought approval of just over Can$26.2 million for its WMP is presented. The TFO expressed concern that wildfire risk is increasing due to a warming climate in Alberta and submitted that “the frequency and severity of fires and extreme weather events in Alberta is increasing.” The Consumers' Coalition of Alberta, intervening in the proceeding, argued that the funding the TFO was requesting was too high given the relatively low risk transmission lines present to initiate wildfires. A summary of the arguments is presented and the necessity to devise some method to evaluate a public risk acceptability level in a cost benefit analysis and to obtain critical wildfire risk mitigation information is discussed.¹¹Bema Enterprises Ltd. prepared evidence for the Consumers' Coalition of Alberta in Alberta Utilities Commission proceedings 23848 and 26509.