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Employing Wildfire Mitigation Technology

Northern Lights’ underground equipment sustained damage from the Sunset Fire in southern Bonner County in August 2025. Photo by Northern Lights Lineman Dan Wanous

Northern Lights, Inc. (NLI) has increased efforts related to wildfire mitigation with an emphasis on tools and technologies. All 3 states where NLI operates—Idaho, Montana, and Washington— have state-level requirements for wildfire mitigation efforts. Wildfire mitigation technology provides rapidly evolving critical tools in the electric utility industry.

Northern Lights uses a satellite vegetation analytics provider to capture imagery around overhead power lines. The imagery is processed through an artificial intelligence model to provide information, such as how close vegetation is to power lines, the locations of hazards and dying trees, and priority areas for trimming. This tool has been valuable in our vegetation management efforts related to wildfire mitigation.

As part of a wildfire grant consortium, NLI has access to wildfire hazard potential modeling tools. These tools take several inputs, including weather forecasts, terrain, and structure density, to forecast hazard potential. This year, NLI will install several weather stations to collect more granular weather information. These tools help inform real-time operational planning decisions, as well as guide long-term project planning for mitigation-based projects.

NLI lineworkers use a tablet application, developed internally, to perform power line inspections. This tool allows lineworkers to capture photos, collect field information, and document deficiencies that may need follow-up attention. The inspection data and repair tracking can be viewed internally on a geographic information system-based map. These inspections and data help mitigate wildfires. Addressing a problem early could prevent a wildfire from starting, as well as a potential outage.

As wildfire mitigation technologies continue to emerge and evolve, NLI evaluates and implements new tools, when feasible, to help reduce the chances of our electric system igniting a wildfire.

Kristin MettkeNorthern Lights Engineering and Operations Manager Kristin Burge is an electrical engineer and has worked in the electric utility industry for most of her career.