Canada’s energy future depends on a resilient, interconnected grid. That energy future is increasingly threatened by the growing frequency and intensity of wildfires across the country. Recent events such as the 2024 wildfire that forced the evacuation of Jasper, Alberta and left the community without power, or the massive 2023 wildfires across Quebec, British Columbia, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia that disrupted energy infrastructure and supply chains, highlight the urgent need for enhanced protection.
Join the Smart Grid Innovation Network Canada on June 5th for a national webinar exploring how wildfires are impacting our electrical grid. The session will examine new preventative measures, including the recent $256M federal funding initiative for Fighting and Managing Wildfires, with a focus on early detection & monitoring for utilities, provinces, municipalities and other stakeholders in Canada.
We’ll cover the costs of inaction, highlight practical mitigation strategies – including education and training, wildfire assets planning, and real-time monitoring – and hear from Pano AI, Electricity Canada, Manitoba Hydro, and Nova Scotia Power, who will discuss best practices that can help.
Webinar Date: June 5th from 2:00pm – 3:00pm AST
Michael is a professional engineer in the Energy Operations and Water Planning Department. Michael joined Manitoba Hydro in 2010 and completed a part-time Master of Science degree in 2016. His graduate research focused on climate change impacts to extreme hydrological events including multi-year droughts. Michael has led technical climate studies for Manitoba Hydro on topics related to hydrology, energy demand, resource planning, infrastructure risk and resilience, and in support of regulatory processes and licensing. Michael collaborates with researchers to improve applicability of climate and hydrological sciences to the engineering community.
Sucheta Lakhani oversees the Utilities Practice at Pano AI, where she leads the company’s work with electric utilities to deploy advanced wildfire detection and intelligence solutions that improve operational awareness and emergency response. Her background spans enterprise SaaS, regulatory strategy, and customer engagement, with previous roles supporting major utilities at Opower and advising energy-sector clients at Booz Allen Hamilton. With a strong foundation in energy economics and regulatory frameworks, Sucheta offers practical insight into how utilities can effectively adopt technology to meet evolving environmental and infrastructure challenges.
Dan manages Electricity Canada’s Transmission Council, Legal Committee and Technology Committee, the reliability program, and their related working groups. These groups focus on the development of policy positions and advocacy priorities relating to their operations.
Mike is the Manager, Asset Performance at Nova Scotia Power Inc. in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He has developed and implemented asset management strategies supporting NS Power’s Transmission and Distribution system since 2014. As part of NS Power’s Enterprise Asset Management team his role includes responsibility for energy delivery and generation reliability reporting, severe weather damage prediction and restoration planning, leadership of the distribution reliability team, development of T&D asset risk profiles, as well as management of NS Power’s annual line inspection programs. Mike holds both a BSc in Physics and a BEng in Chemical Engineering from Dalhousie University as well as an MSc in Nuclear Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (EPFL/ETHZ). He is a member of the Institute of Asset Management and a registered Professional Engineer with Engineers Nova Scotia.
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