Rhizome, an extreme weather resilience planning platform for the power grid, has a new platform that helps utilities reduce wildfire risk.

The AI-powered platform is called gridFirm (Fire Ignition Reduction and Mitigation), and it’s available for all electric utilities in the US, Canada, and Australia. It quantifies the risk of utility assets igniting wildfires and identifies what cost-effective measures can be deployed to mitigate those risks. gridFirm builds on Rhizome’s AI-based platform currently being used by utilities to model grid failures caused by extreme weather. 

By applying machine learning to a host of asset, geographic, and historical datasets, gridFirm gives utilities granular insight into the likelihood of an asset igniting a wildfire. Rhizome developed its new platform with feedback from its utility customers in the Northeast, Pacific Northwest, and Texas. 

Rhizome cofounder and CTO Rahul Dubey said:

gridFIRM evaluates specific wildfire risk mitigation tactics utilities are commonly considering.

The tool is specifically built to help utilities assess the effectiveness of investments such as insulating bare conductors, undergrounding, replacing aging assets, deploying reclosers, and others.

The Washington, DC-based company also announced that it’s getting $1 million in capital investment from Convective Capital, a venture capital firm that funds startups developing technology to address the growing global wildfire crisis.

Bill Clerico, founder and managing partner at Convective Capital, said:

[W]ildfire ignitions have become an existential risk, causing bankruptcies, fines, and regulatory actions and costing the industry over $100 billion in the last 10 years. 

We’re excited that Rhizome’s new product gridFIRM is now available as a much-needed new tool for utilities, and our investment will help the company grow even faster and build a safer and more reliable grid.

Read more: In a first, the US will require grid planning for 20 years into the future

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