As wildfires continue to pose growing threats to electric reliability across North America, NERC has released a new report highlighting wildfire mitigation strategies from a Canadian perspective and filed a new three-year Wildfire Action Plan with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

The Wildfire Mitigation: Canadian Perspectives report identifies actions to help the industry address wildfire-related risks, while the action plan outlines coordinated efforts to improve wildfire situational awareness, mitigation, stakeholder engagement, and Reliability Standards development.

The report is based on discussions from the Canadian Wildfire Mitigation Workshop, held April 8-9, 2026, in Calgary, Alberta. Jointly convened by NERC and Electricity Canada, the workshop brought together electric utilities, reliability organizations, government agencies, researchers, and technology providers to discuss wildfire risks and mitigation approaches.

"The impact of wildfires on the electric grid is greater than in years past, and that means it will take a coordinated effort and innovative approaches to maintain bulk power system reliability," said Mark Lauby, NERC chief engineer and NERC Fellow. "This report from our Canadian workshop, together with the new action plan, provide a foundation for industry, government, and regulators to take meaningful next steps to protect not just our critical infrastructure, but the people who rely on it."

The report focuses on three areas: wildfire risk assessments, Reliability Standards considerations, and utility operational practices. Recommendations include:

• Integrating probabilistic wildfire risk assessment methods into electric system reliability planning instead of relying solely on traditional deterministic approaches.
• Evaluating potential modifications to NERC Reliability Standards.
• Adopting new utility operational practices during high-risk fire conditions to reduce risk and improve situational awareness.

NERC's Wildfire Action Plan outlines a three-year roadmap that includes:

• Developing a wildfire reliability guideline for filing in 2027.
• Beginning a review of one or more Reliability Standards in 2028.
• Continuing engagement with industry stakeholders, the North American Transmission Forum, and federal authorities.

"Today's heightened risk environment calls for concerted action," said Darrell Moore, NERC's director of Reliability Risk Management. "The Wildfire Action Plan identifies concrete steps that NERC will undertake, in close collaboration with stakeholders, to reduce the risk of wildfires being ignited by the bulk power system, and their potential impacts of wildfires on grid reliability."

The Canadian workshop, report, and action plan build on NERC's May 2026 report on wildfire ignition risk mitigation practices and its updated Wildfire Mitigation Guide, originally released in 2021.

NERC also launched a new initiative page to centralize wildfire-related reports, guidance, and resources for industry stakeholders.