Wildfire Emergency Preparedness

Wildfire Mitigation, Safety & Emergency Preparedness

Truckee Donner PUD takes the threat of wildfire seriously. Catastrophic wildfires across the Western U.S. in recent years have highlighted the dangers of wildfire season in the Truckee/Tahoe area. Our wildfire prevention activities are designed to reduce the risk that our overhead electric distribution system will be the cause of ignition of a catastrophic wildfire.

NV Energy Wildfire Outage (PSOM) Details Below*

Want to receive emergency TDPUD Nixle text alerts for major outages and emergencies? Text TDPUD to 333111 

What does the Truckee Donner Public Utility District do to prevent wildfires?

At the Truckee Donner PUD, we recognize the devastating effects of wildfires and work continuously to ensure the safety of our employees, customers, and community. Safety is our top priority!

We treat our entire service territory as high risk. Our comprehensive Wildfire Mitigation Plan includes enhanced vegetation management activities, and improved operational and engineering practices. All of these steps reduce the risk of fire ignition from vegetation and our equipment.

  • Enhanced Vegetation Management: We are clearing vegetation within a larger area around electrical lines and poles, as well as inspecting and trimming more frequently, to reduce the risk of fire or power outages due to tree contact.
  • Infrastructure Investments: We are upgrading critical equipment, adopting new technology and expanding patrols during outages to prevent ignition. We’re also replacing traditional fuses with current-limiting fuses, replacing mineral oil-filled equipment with less flammable plant-based oil-filled equipment, and leveraging our advanced metering infrastructure system.
  • Improved Operational Practices: During wildfire season, we turn off automatic reclosing for overhead lines. This means that if a protective device opens, it stays open until District personnel reset it. 
  • Anticipated and Unplanned Outages: Truckee Donner PUD’s wildfire prevention activities are designed to reduce the risk that our overhead electric distribution system will be the cause of a wildfire. The steps we are taking make our electric system safer, however, they can prolong the duration of power outages that occur in wildfire season.

What are Wildfire Safety Outages?

During periods of high wildfire danger, NV Energy can opt to de-energize its transmission lines that feed TDPUD's system in an effort to decrease the likelihood of electric equipment igniting or worsening a wildfire. They have two wildfire outage programs: a wildfire safety de-energization program, referred to as Public Safety Outage Management, as well as a new emergency de-energization program, which will address the threat of active wildfires.

NV Energy PSOM 

In a PSOM event, NV Energy will de-energize transmission lines that deliver power to Truckee—and likely the entire Truckee-North Tahoe region—during extreme weather conditions and elevated fire risk levels. As in prior years, TDPUD plans to alert the public with typically a 48-24 hour notice, followed by a 12-4 hour notice. To learn more about PSOM and how TDPUD will communicate with the community during this event, visit tdpud.org/psom.

NV Energy Emergency De-Energization

In an emergency de-energization event, NV Energy will shut off power when an active wildfire gets too close to its equipment, to protect first responders on the ground fighting fires, and to avoid contributing to catastrophic wildfire conditions by lowering the risk of a secondary ignition. Depending on the location of the fire start and rate of expansion, NV Energy may provide little notice of the safety outage. TDPUD is evaluating this new de-energization program and will work to communicate to the public as soon as possible.

These outages will likely impact TDPUD’s entire customer base for periods ranging from one day to a few days. Unfortunately, TDPUD does not have control over the timing and duration of the outages. It will be based on NV Energy’s determination of the length of the extreme wildfire danger period, plus the time required for both NV Energy and TDPUD to visually inspect 100 percent of the electric system to safely restore power.

TDPUD Outage Centers

TDPUD recently entered into an agreement with Truckee-Donner Recreation and Park District to utilize the Community Arts Center at 10046 Church St. as an outage center during an extended wildfire safety or other power outage. TDPUD’s main focus during a wildfire safety outage needs to be on monitoring and protecting our infrastructure, and then quickly mobilizing to inspect our entire system and safely re-energize when the fire danger passes. Public utilities are not required to provide services to the community during wildfire outages, however TDPUD wants to help our community in a small way when these extended outages occur. This outage center will have a very limited purpose: it will provide people with a location to charge devices and receive informational updates from TDPUD. TDPUD and TDRPD have agreed to deploy the outage center as soon as possible in the event of a NV Energy PSOM or other outage, and will staff the outage center from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily until the outage resolves. No other services will be offered from TDPUD or TDRPD at this location. Should additional public services be necessary, TDPUD will contact town and/or county agencies for the unmet needs as appropriate.

See “Power Outages During Wildfire Season” below for more information, and click here for TDPUD's PSOM page.

Wildfire Mitigation Plan 2025Wildfire Mitigation Plan Independent Evaluation - 2023

Be Prepared. Stay Informed.

Are you prepared for wildfire season?  Does TDPUD have your up-to-date contact information in case of an emergency? See below for information on wildfire safety outages, other prevention efforts, and how to stay informed.

Get notified of outages and emergencies

Please update your contact information, including email addresses and mobile numbers. Click "My Account" at the top right of this page to login or register, or call Customer Service at 530-587-3896. For residents and visitors who want to receive TDPUD alerts but aren’t customers, please text TDPUD to 333111 and enroll in emergency Nixle alerts. Please note this is not the same Nixle registration as the Town of Truckee. Even if you are enrolled in Town of Truckee alerts via Nixle or CodeRED, you must also register for TDPUD alerts separately.

Power Outages During Wildfire Season

There are two types of outages TDPUD customers may experience due to wildfire safety, an anticipated outage (PSOM) or an unplanned outage (recloser one shot). TDPUD's dedicated staff takes reliability very seriously, works hard to prevent power outages, and responds quickly when they do occur.

NV Energy Public Safety Outage Management (PSOM):

Click here for TDPUD's PSOM Web Page

NV Energy will continue their wildfire safety de-energization program referred to as Public Safety Outage Management (PSOM), where NV Energy will turn off power transmission lines that deliver power to Truckee during extreme weather conditions and elevated fire risk levels. TDPUD does not generate power locally and is dependent on the transmission of electricity through the NV Energy system.

The PSOM outages will likely impact TDPUD’s entire customer base for periods ranging from one day to a few days. Unfortunately, TDPUD does not have control over the timing and duration of the outages. It will be based on the length of the extreme wildfire danger period and the time required to visually inspect 100% of the electric system to safely restore power. TDPUD is collaborating with local emergency response and critical infrastructure stakeholders to raise awareness of the new NV Energy PSOM program and to mitigate impacts.

TDPUD customers can sign up to be notified of NV Energy PSOM’s and other emergency situations in their TDPUD account. TDPUD will attempt to notify all customers if a NV Energy PSOM is planned between 48-24 hours and 12-4 hours before the outage

Preparations for wildfires and power outages can include identifying backup charging methods for phones and electronic devices, making hard copies of emergency contacts and family information, planning for medical needs (including power dependent breathing machines, wheelchairs, dialysis, etc.) and planning for pets and livestock. Residents or businesses who can’t be without power should consider professionally installing a generator. All property owners should ensure there’s defensible space around homes and businesses. 

Recloser One Shot Operation

One key safety practice the TDPUD takes during wildfire season is to disable circuit protection devices called “automatic circuit reclosers.” A recloser is an automatic switch that is programmed to stop the transfer of energy after sensing a fault, perform a test, and then automatically restart transmission if the fault is gone. This is usually what happens when you experience a brief outage or “blip.”

While reclosers have greatly improved TDPUD’s electric system reliability, they have the potential to contribute to wildfire ignition when a tree branch remains in contact with a line during the re-energization process. During wildfire season, the TDPUD disables this capability for the recloser to reset itself. This is called “one shot,” meaning that once a line experiences a fault, an outage will occur until TDPUD crews can visually inspect the line and determine the cause of the fault before putting it safely back into operation. While this doesn’t increase the number of outages that occur, it does lead to longer outage durations.

Summer and fall outages are primarily caused by thunder storms, animals, transmission, and necessary wildfire mitigation safety practices. TDPUD is a transmission dependent utility of NV Energy. While NV Energy's reliability is generally good, transmission outages do occur and are beyond TDPUD's control. 

Tips for Customer Preparedness

  • Sign up for emergency alerts with Nixle, a system that provides public safety and community information specific to your neighborhood. Choose one of the following ways to register:
    1. Online: https://nixle.com/register/
    2. Text TDPUD to 333111
    3. Download the Nixle mobile app
  • Customers should update their contact information , including email addresses and mobile numbers. Click "My Account" at the top right of this page to login or register. Alternatively, call Customer Service at 530-587-3896.
  • Identify backup charging methods for phones and other electronic devices.
  • Keep emergency, family and other important phone numbers accessible in hard copy.
  • Plan for any medical needs like medications that need to be refrigerated or devices that require power.
  • If you are dependent on electric or battery-dependent medical technologies such as breathing machines, a power wheelchair or scooter, and home oxygen or dialysis, it is critical that you have a plan in place for an extended power outage. Contact our Customer Service Department to ensure that they are aware of your medical needs: 530-587-3896.
  • Plan for the needs of your pets and livestock.
  • Build or restock your emergency kit with flashlights, fresh batteries, first aid supplies, cash and food that will last up to five days.
  • Designate an emergency meeting location.
  • Know how to manually open your garage door.
  • Ensure any backup generators are ready to safely operate. Visit our web page on safely operating backup generators: 
  • Do you have adequate defensible space around your home or business? TDPUD has invested significant resources to maintain the health of the vegetation and reduce fuels for wildfires around the many facilities and properties that the TDPUD owns across the greater Truckee community. Maintaining adequate defensible space to prevent catastrophic wildfires is every property owner's responsibility.

Additional Emergency Resources

TDPUD Utility Tree Trimming Program and Other Fire Prevention Programs

Trees growing into power lines or falling during storms create the risk of fire and power outages. Trimming and maintaining the trees surrounding the service wires to your home or business is the property owner's responsibility.  Call TDPUD when you do this important work and we will de-energize your power line at no charge. 

TDPUD has robust programs to maintain electric system reliability and to prevent and mitigate fires. These include programs to trim trees, clear around poles, maintain our equipment, and document results.

  • Extensive annual tree trimming, tree removal, and pole clearance that meets new more stringent vegetation management regulations, covering the entire electric overhead distribution system in a five-year cycle.
  • Visually inspecting 100% of our overhead power lines, poles, equipment, and surrounding trees/vegetation annually. The state of California is taking unprecedented measures to protect all California residents and businesses from the risk of wildfire, and this is part of that effort.
  • Certain conditions, when paired with extreme weather events, can pose an increased risk of wildfire. Examples of these conditions include high wind days, low humidity levels, dry vegetation that could fuel a wildfire, and Red Flag Warnings declared by the National Weather Service.
  • When these conditions raise a heightened potential for wildfires, Truckee may experience power outages to reduce the risk of a wildfire occurring.
  • Routine maintenance of all components of the electric distribution system.
  • Full documentation of maintenance and tree-trimming in the TDPUD's GIS and asset management systems.
  • Programming of automatic reclosers to only operate once during wildfire season.
  • Investigating solutions to replace explusionary fuses and address replacement of legacy low voltage service wire tree-attachments.
  • Consideration of delaying non-critical work during Red Flag Warnings and severe wind events.
  • Participating in APPA Reliable Public Power Provider (RP3) outside audit of our electric distribution system and practice.  Achieved Platinum rating (2nd highest rating) in 2018.
  • Building the overhead electric distribution system to California's Heavy Loading District requirements (most robust construction standard) and can therefore withstand and rarely have winds over 30-40 MPH.
  • Managing, as a large property owner in our community with dozens of parcels, the vegetation, fuel loading, and defensible space on all of our properties to mitigate the risk of catastrophic wildfire.
  • Investor-owned Utilities Public Safety Power Shutoff: https://prepareforpowerdown.com/