Clear Path Utility Solutions
Risk Mitigation Strategist

Clear Path Utility Solutions isn’t a typical service provider. It acts as a crucial intermediary for numerous utility companies across North America, providing expert vegetation management and contractor oversight to effectively manage operations and mitigate risks. Its comprehensive services, spanning pre-construction to vegetation management, auditing and programmatic improvement suggestions for regulatory compliance, make it an indispensable partner for utilities.

Backed by a team of over 200 professionals with decades of industry experience, Clear Path takes on a critical role between construction companies and vegetation field services to support utility projects.

“We operate in the middle ground. As project managers, we streamline the front end of utility projects. We also support the backend, handling everything from restoration to final closeout,” says Ryan Korpela, president and COO.

A subsidiary of Celerity—a utility risk management firm—Clear Path’s industry reputation is powered by its exceptional emergency response capabilities, battle-tested during California’s frequent wildfire crises. The proven experience and invaluable lessons learned from wildfire and regulatory challenges empower the company to expand its mission beyond California, addressing similar issues nationwide with confidence.

A Time-Tested Approach to Streamlining Operations

A team of highly educated and certified experts, backed by boots-on-the-ground experience, is at the helm of Clear Path's stronghold on risk mitigation.

It delivers practical, customizable solutions built through a consultative approach. Working closely with clients, the team analyzes vegetation management and other maintenance programs holistically to identify deficiencies and glean insights into risks and gaps.

Clear Path's emergency management experience helps utilities reduce untimed maintenance and risk mitigation expenses. Based on project requirements, it assigns custom emergency management teams of varying sizes to efficiently manage events and ensure safe work completion.

Equally impressive is Clear Path's wildfire mitigation planning service. The team visits the location, identifies the risk and analyzes the efficiency of clients' current programs in wildfire risk mitigation. Clients are provided with strategies for incremental investments to reduce risks before they snowball into catastrophe. It is adept at aligning vegetation management crews with construction personnel and overseeing their coordinated efforts to restore power, clear out storm or fire-damaged trees and continue utility operations.

Clear Path’s services also help utilities experiencing employee turnover. Its experienced professionals fill operational gaps and maintain high service levels.

An Icon of Expertise and Resilience

Clear Path excels in navigating the complex landscape of heavily regulated metropolitan construction, seamlessly coordinating contractors and linemen to manage every phase of a project. It also verifies that contractors' invoicing aligns with the actual personnel and equipment in the field, protecting the utility’s interests by ensuring accurate billing and cost transparency.

Tasks are carried out in accordance with work assignments, with contractors strictly adhering to prescribed guidelines. Clear Path actively identifies gaps and failures and serves as a critical layer in risk reduction. Well-executed projects give clients peace of mind, assuring investment and insurance groups that risks are being effectively managed.

Going the extra mile, the team also engages in community relations, conducting site meetings and town hall conferences to proactively address concerns or resistance arising from the general public, particularly in areas where utility projects might affect communities.

In many cases, Clear Path has also offered litigation and regulatory compliance support. Many of these challenges are the culmination of labor issues, increasing demand for the construction of new lines, regulatory compliance, grid resiliency and environmental and permit restrictions. The team has developed a compliance auditing program that involves statistical sampling of the entire project. As a seasoned leader, it blends traditional practices with modern technology to capture statistical snapshots of risks, identify gaps and deliver effective, real-world utility management models.

It also offers comprehensive quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) support, ensuring all work is done correctly and to client specifications.

The Beginning Chapters

The Clear Path journey began in 2015 when Steve Tankersley, a veteran with over 40 years of experience in utility operations & vegetation management, laid its cornerstone.

Tankersley had retired as a senior manager at a major investor-owned utility. His extensive experience enabled the team to provide critical support to the utility. It offered them emergency response services during wildfires, alongside delivering comprehensive project management with a focus on construction oversight. When the utility was under federal government monitor oversight due to lawsuits, the team audited their vegetation management programs to suggest programmatic improvements. This powerful team, focused on operational excellence, helped the utility defend itself against the findings of the federal government and county safety monitors.

“We started modestly but quickly gained prominence by consistently delivering exceptional service and serving our reputed clientele,” says Korpela.

Driving Efficiency through Business Continuity

Clear Path has propelled numerous clients toward success. In one instance, Clear Path engaged with Hydro One, one of Canada's largest utility service providers, and reinvented its vegetation management program. The client’s massive service area was cluttered with an estimated tree population of 13 million, 62 percent higher than previous estimates. The client was also challenged with harsh winters and extensive storms while facing difficulties with legacy infrastructure, equipment, operational practices, and labor constraints. Clear Path began with a program assessment followed by a system field assessment.

Through data modeling, it charted the intersection between defect, cost and reliability and determined the optimal maintenance cycle. Business practices and systems were also revamped. Upon the implementation of the first maintenance cycle, the team could detect that the cycle length contributed to defects and outages. With statistical representative random sampling, Clear Path captured tree conditions and environs and engaged ARBORMETRICS to perform field surveys. Using the collected data, the maintenance cycle length was shortened to three years, and the work scope was defined with a strategic focus on defect prevention. In addition, it implemented supporting business practices and systems, including QA/QC and outage investigation protocol, work management systems, hazard tree program, and decision-based analytics and resource strategies.

Clear Path’s impactful game plan reduced feeder outages from 1149 to 522. Thirty percent of the feeders were in working condition, and 42 percent had no outages. The significant reliability improvement rate set the client on a path to thrive in the next two years of the first cycle.

Standing the test of time, Clear Path has built a strong foundation in the industry for reliable, long-impacting services that consistently exceed client expectations. Driven by a relentless pursuit of excellence, Clear Utility Solutions takes charge on behalf of utilities, helping them prepare for the inevitable, prevent recurring incidents and safeguard assets from potential risks.