International Wildfire Risk Mitigation Consortium (IWRMC)

A Collaborative Solution

The IWRMC is an industry-sponsored collaborative designed to facilitate the sharing of wildfire risk mitigation insights and discovery of innovative and unique utility wildfire practices from across the globe.

The program is led by a Utility Executive Steering Group, whose members are on the frontlines of the wildfire/bushfire issues in Australia and California:

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IWRMC in a nutshell: Acquaint yourself with IWRMC with this short (< 2 minute) introductory video.

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Find out the latest tech innovations helping tackle wildfires across the globe with this short (< 2 minute) video.

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Electric T&D company from Victoria, Australia with over 740,000 customers

Electric Distribution company serving the City of Melbourne, with over 800,000 customers

Electric T&D company serving Northern and Central California with over 5.4 million customers

Electric T&D company serving Southern California with over 5.1 million customers

Electric T&D company serving San Diego & Southern Orange Counties with over 1.4 million customers

Mission

To establish and facilitate a system of working and networking channels between members of the global utility community to support ongoing sharing of data, information, technology, and practices, and proactively address the wildfire issue through learning, innovation, analysis, assessment, and collaboration.

Vision

Learning

Innovation

Analysis

Collaboration

  • Leverage global experience/ideas, and identify meaningful differences
  • Accelerate learning, sharing, and the development of new risk models and mitigation strategies;
  • Expedite data collection, validation, and evaluation
  • Introduce new technology and advance the deployment of innovative solutions
  • Enable members to lead the industry transformation
  • Establish good standing with regulators and the community via the development of initiatives based on innovative global practices
  • Establish global standards that can be leveraged by members to demonstrate a proactive, holistic, and responsible approach to risk mitigation

Working Groups

Working Group discussions cover many different topics and focus areas. Members routinely share their experiences and help to identify industry leading practices. Occasionally, members invite leading vendors who they have worked with to share more information on the products and services they offer in order to improve and expedite decision making for those exploring similar options.

Some recent topics explored & presentations made within the working groups include:

Examples of Topics to Be Explored

Program Web Portal

The Members-Only Web Portal is available to participants, providing access to:

  • Industry Research & Analysis
    – Annual Risk Mitigation Plans
    – Academic Research
    – Case Studies
    – Interesting and Topical Articles from Respected News Sources
    – Recent Conference Presentations
    – Public Data from Utilities & Regulators, such as Risk Maps
    – Regulatory Frameworks and Approaches
  • A Secure Confidentiality Hub – participants can share documents, insights, feedback, etc. in a secure environment.
  • Program Calendars – provides up-to-date information regarding meetings, webinars, etc.

Additional IWRMC Members

Benefits of Participating in the IWRMC

  • Strategic Influence. Determine priorities and deliverables with input to the governing bodies or committees

  • Technical Influence. Drive modeling decisions and data/model refinement with participation in related committees
  • Collaborative Research and Development. Develop risk models or tools at a lower cost and with a higher degree of confidence in the results by pooling resources (technical approaches, datasets, etc.)
  • Early Access to Data and Results. Gain early access to information and enjoy a strategic advantage by sharing in data/practices that you might otherwise not possess working alone.

Core Program

Similar to CEATI and EPRI, the IWRMC program offers both core program components and optional modules that will vary from quarter to quarter.

  • Working Groups, as established by the (IWRMC) Steering Group, focus attention on the most pressing issues and the most valuable collaborative opportunities.
  • News & Research Web Portal updated and curated weekly with the latest wildfire/bushfire-related news, academic research, regulations, and mitigation plans from utilities around the world.
  • Surveys of Industry Peers to gather insights into the processes, methodologies, tools, and standards utilized by utilities to support their wildfire risk mitigation activities.
  • Deep-Dive Analyses using public and/or member-contributed data and supported by UMS Group’s expert analytic and modeling teams.
  • Case Studies to communicate relevant experiences and provide lessons learned to the broader industry.
  • Quarterly Webinars to share Working Group progress and insights, and to present new and interesting concepts to your industry peers.
  • Annual Report & Conference to present progress on annual program objectives, highlight the most impactful insights gained, strengthen industry relationships and solicit feedback from participants.
Optional Program Components
  • Research Projects. To explore specific topics and investigate ideas that have not been pursued, or have been insufficiently pursued to date, by the industry or academia.

  • Joint Development Projects. To pool resources, coordinate data collection, and document real-world results in the pursuit of new ideas, approaches, and innovations.
  • New Technology & Tools. To explore the vendor landscape, broaden the dataset of real-world experiences, and utilize collective leverage to deploy new tools and technologies quickly and affordably.
  • Benchmarking, Analysis & Performance Metrics. To better understand your organization’s performance relative to the industry, or track progress over time, in relation to highly specific topics or activities.

Client Feedback

“The use cases for technologies and innovations being developed to address wildfire risks extend far beyond the wildfire space.”

“Learning from the experiences of others saves us time and money… I don’t need to waste my time trying things that others have already proven to be ineffective.”

“UMS Group’s facilitation of the IWRMC is essential… it’s too easy to get distracted with the priorities of today and lose sight of the issues that may arise tomorrow.”

Client Feedback

“The IWRMC has helped us to build our wildfire mitigation organization by showing us what we need to be thinking about and who needs to be involved.”

“It’s reassuring to hear that others are facing the same challenges that we are facing.”

“Wildfires are not a “California” issue… they’re a global issue.”

You might also be interested in our Wildfire Risk Mitigation

For more information, please contact us at wildfirerisk@umsgroup.com or +1 973 335 3555

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