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PG&E's Layers of Protection Are Working, Prevented a Major Wildfire in 2023 and 2024
SAN RAMON, Calif., June 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to monitor wildfire conditions and deploying proven layers of wildfire protection to prevent wildfires, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) shared its readiness ahead of peak wildfire season. These layers of protection helped prevent a major wildfire in 2023 and 2024.
Today, at PG&E's Applied Technology Services lab, the company's research and development facility, PG&E shared details about how the layers of protection are applied throughout PG&E's service area to prevent wildfires. PG&E was joined by representatives of XPRIZE Wildfire and two local teams – Ember Guard and Rain – who bring AI power and autonomous firefighting to the competition. PG&E is a proud sponsor of XPRIZE Wildfire and its work to build a pipeline of new technologies that support advanced wildfire mitigation, detection and response.
Today's Wildfire Resilience from Layers of Protection
"Rather than being reactive to conditions, our wildfire work proactively protects and prevents wildfire. We're keeping our system safe while we build resilience for the future. This work is essential in light of extreme weather and extended wildfire seasons," said PG&E Wildfire Mitigation Vice President Andy Abranches.
Tomorrow's XPRIZE Goal: Detect Earlier, Extinguish Faster
As wildfire conditions are dynamic from year to year, PG&E is committed to supporting a pipeline of new research, development and innovation to address climate-driven wildfire challenges. PG&E today joined XPRIZE Wildfire and two local teams participating in the four-year, $11 million competition to accelerate the speed of detection and suppression of destructive wildfires.
XPRIZE Wildfire encourages teams from around the world to innovate around a wide range of firefighting technologies across two complementary tracks designed to transform how potentially catastrophic fires are detected, managed and suppressed. PG&E is the co-title sponsor of XPRIZE Wildfire along with the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
"For 30 years, XPRIZE has spurred innovation to address the world's most pressing challenges. In 2023, we launched XPRIZE Wildfire with a goal to end destructive wildfires," said XPRIZE Wildfire Program Director Andrea Santy. "Today, we have an incredible global cohort of dozens of teams making monumental strides towards developing solutions to reach this audacious goal."
One of the Bay Area teams showcased at the event was Palo Alto-based Ember Guard, a cross-disciplinary team led by Ahvish Roy, founder of ARX, and supported by Sangram Ganguly, Chief Technology Officer of Rhombus Power. It uses deep learning along with AI to produce a scalable cloud-based high-resolution wildfire model that forecasts the likely propagation and intensity of a wildfire so that firefighters can prioritize their limited resources
Also participating was Alameda-based Rain, which recently showcased autonomous wildfire suppression technology in California. A Black Hawk helicopter equipped with wildfire mission autonomy from Rain and MATRIX™ autonomy technology from Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, conducted a demonstration of a wide range of wildfire response missions and tasks, including finding and suppressing early-state wildfires, all commanded via tablet. Rain is a participant in the Electric Program Investment Charge program, a research and development project.
Learn more about PG&E's wildfire safety efforts at pge.com/wildfiresafety.
About PG&E
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is a combined natural gas and electric utility serving more than 16 million people across 70,000 square miles in Northern and Central California. For more information, visit pge.com and pge.com/news.
SOURCE Pacific Gas and Electric Company
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