PG&E’s 2020 Wildfire Mitigation Plan Expands, Enhances Community Wildfire Safety Program, Reduces Impacts of Public Safety ...
February 07 2020 - 7:51PM
Business Wire
Highlights Include New Grid Technology
Investments and Additional Accelerated Inspections and Repairs to
Help Keep Customers and Communities Safer from Wildfires
As part of its ongoing efforts to further reduce wildfire risks
and keep customers and the communities it serves safe, Pacific Gas
and Electric Company (PG&E) today submitted its 2020 Wildfire
Mitigation Plan to the California Public Utilities Commission
(CPUC). The plan expands and enhances the company’s comprehensive
Community Wildfire Safety Program designed to address the growing
threat of extreme weather and wildfires across its service
area.
The 2020 Wildfire Mitigation Plan will continue expanded key
safety work including:
- New grid technology;
- Hardening of the electric system;
- Accelerated inspections of electric infrastructure;
- Enhanced vegetation management around power lines; and
- Real-time monitoring and situational awareness tools to better
understand how severe weather can impact PG&E’s system.
“Our state is faced with an extended and more dangerous wildfire
season that demands additional urgent action and coordination
across many stakeholder groups to reduce the risk of wildfire,”
said Michael Lewis, Senior Vice President, Electric Operations.
“The wildfire safety actions and programs described in our 2020
plan detail the company’s unwavering efforts to improve public
safety and further reduce wildfire risk.”
Reducing the Customer Impacts of Public Safety Power
Shutoffs
PG&E’s 2020 plan includes changes to make Public Safety
Power Shutoff (PSPS) events smaller in scope and shorter in
duration and to lessen the overall impacts of shutoffs while
working to keep customers and communities safe during times of
severe weather and high wildfire risk.
Efforts this year to reduce the impact of PSPS events on
customers include:
- Installing 592 automated sectionalizing devices on distribution
lines with the aim of reducing the number of communities without
power during a PSPS event;
- Adding 23 transmission switches capable of redirecting power
and keeping substations and transmission lines energized in some
areas during a PSPS event;
- Working with local communities to operationalize additional
microgrids that will allow customers and essential community
services to stay energized during a PSPS event;
- Expanding PG&E’s ability to provide backup power to some
critical service providers, such as major transportation
thoroughfares, water systems, medical centers and fire
departments;
- Enhancing meteorology technology for more precise PSPS
events;
- Nearly doubling PG&E’s helicopter fleet from 35 to 65 to
patrol lines after a weather event has passed;
- Using two fixed-wing aircrafts with infrared cameras capable of
inspecting transmission lines at night;
- Deploying additional field crews to patrol, inspect and repair
power lines after a weather event has passed;
- Working closely with local, state and tribal officials to
better coordinate for PSPS events;
- Bolstering PG&E’s website and call center resources and
continuing to make improvements to information and resources
available;
- Improving customer notifications about when power will be shut
off for safety and when customers can expect it to be
restored;
- Working with local communities to improve the locations,
availability and resources provided at Community Resource Centers;
and
- Hosting a series of information open houses and webinars to
provide information to customers and communities about systematic
improvements and PSPS preparedness.
“We know how much our customers rely on electric service.
Proactively turning off power disrupts lives and presents its own
safety risks, which need to be carefully considered and addressed,”
said Debbie Powell, Vice President, Asset & Risk Management,
Community Wildfire Safety Program. “Turning off power for safety is
not how we strive to serve our customers, and we are committed to
reducing the impacts without compromising safety.”
Reducing Potential Ignitions
California faces an increasing threat from catastrophic
wildfires, severe weather and higher temperatures, and recent state
and federal climate assessments warn the threat is only growing. In
2012, just 15 percent of PG&E’s service area was designated by
the CPUC as having an elevated wildfire risk. Today, it’s more than
50 percent.
Multiple factors contribute to wildfire risk and an extended
fire season across PG&E’s service area. Prolonged periods of
high temperatures, extreme dryness, tinder-dry grass and
record-high winds combined with vast tree mortality following a
historic five-year drought are increasing the number of wildfires
and making them more dangerous.
PG&E’s 2020 Wildfire Mitigation Plan describes forecasted
work and investments that will be executed this year to help
further reduce the potential for wildfire ignitions associated with
its electrical equipment in high fire-threat areas.
The plan addresses an array of wildfire risk factors through new
and ongoing measures. Among the safety steps and actions to be
taken this year include:
- Pruning or removing more than 1 million trees to keep them away
from power lines;
- Installing more than 240 miles of stronger and more resilient
poles and covered power lines, along with targeted
undergrounding;
- Adding approximately 400 new weather stations this year, which
will keep PG&E on track to add a total of 1,300 new weather
stations by 2021, a density of one station roughly every 20
circuit-miles in the high fire-risk areas;
- Installing nearly 200 new, high-definition cameras in high
fire-threat areas, which will keep PG&E on track to add a total
of 600 by 2022, increasing coverage across high fire-risk areas to
more than 90 percent of its service area; and
- Coordinating prevention and response efforts by monitoring
wildfire risks in real time from the Wildfire Safety Operations
Center.
Building Upon Completed Work in 2019
PG&E has completed or is implementing these important safety
enhancements and investments to help keep its customers and
communities safe. Some of the actions taken in 2019 included:
- Cleared vegetation around thousands of miles of power line
via Enhanced Vegetation Management work: Work to keep trees
away from power lines continued as PG&E crews and contractors
pruned or removed trees with a higher potential for wildfire risk
along approximately 2,498 miles of distribution lines, topping the
2019 goal of 2,455 miles.
- Made the electric system stronger and more resilient:
PG&E installed stronger and more resilient poles and covered
power lines on 171 circuit miles, 21 more miles than the goal of
150 miles. Over the next 12 to 14 years, approximately 7,100 miles
will be hardened in high fire-threat areas.
- Added new tech to Wildfire Safety Operations Center: The
24/7 command center for PG&E’s wildfire monitoring and response
opened in 2018 and enables better coordination and communication
with field personnel and the addition of using satellites for
spotting fire starts.
- Completed unprecedented wildfire safety inspections:
PG&E has completed 100 percent of visual inspections and aerial
inspections of nearly 50,000 transmission structures, nearly
700,000 distribution poles and 222 substations in high fire-risk
areas.
- Installed hundreds more weather stations: PG&E
installed 426 weather stations, 26 more than the goal of 400.
- Turned on more high-definition cameras: An effective
tool for early spotting of wildfires and monitoring real-time
conditions, 133 high-definition cameras were installed in 2019, 37
more than the goal for the year.
- Utilized temporary microgrids: In 2019, PG&E safely
readied and operated four temporary microgrids to energize more
than 4,800 customers during the October and November PSPS events in
portions of Angwin, Calistoga, Grass Valley and Placerville.
Open and Transparent Public Process
PG&E’s 2020 Wildfire Mitigation Plan is subject to public
review and approval by the CPUC. PG&E strongly supports and
encourages its customers and communities to provide feedback and
participate in this important public process.
Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking
Statements
This news release includes forward-looking statements that are
not historical facts, including statements about the beliefs,
expectations, estimates, future plans and strategies of PG&E
Corporation and Pacific Gas and Electric Company (the “Utility”),
including but not limited to the Utility’s 2020 Wildfire Mitigation
Plan. These statements are based on current expectations and
assumptions, which management believes are reasonable, and on
information currently available to management, but are necessarily
subject to various risks and uncertainties. In addition to the risk
that these assumptions prove to be inaccurate, factors that could
cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated
by the forward-looking statements include factors disclosed in
PG&E Corporation and the Utility’s joint Annual Report on Form
10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018, their joint Quarterly
Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2019, June
30, 2019 and September 30, 2019, and their subsequent reports filed
with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Additional factors
include, but are not limited to, those associated with the Chapter
11 cases of PG&E Corporation and the Utility that commenced on
January 29, 2019. PG&E Corporation and the Utility undertake no
obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking
statements, whether due to new information, future events or
otherwise, except to the extent required by law.
About PG&E
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E
Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is one of the largest combined natural gas
and electric energy companies in the United States. Based in San
Francisco, with more than 20,000 employees, the company delivers
some of the nation's cleanest energy to 16 million people in
Northern and Central California. For more information, visit
pge.com and pge.com/news.
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