Improving Weather Forecasting to Better Predict and Respond to Weather Threats, PG&E Has Installed More Than 200 New Weather Stations This Year
August 24 2021 - 11:45AM
Business Wire
More than 1,200 weather stations are now
installed across Northern and Central California
With an ever-expanding network of weather stations across its
service area, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is
positioned to refine the scope of Public Safety Power Shutoff
(PSPS) events and prepare for increasingly common severe weather
events.
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PG&E installs weather stations across
Northern and Central California (Photo: Business Wire)
More than 200 new weather stations have been installed this year
alone. PG&E plans to have a total of 1,300 by the end of 2021.
This will equip the company with one weather station for every
20-line miles of electric distribution circuits within Tier 2 and
Tier 3 High Fire-Threat Districts, as designated by the California
Public Utilities Commission.
Data captured by the weather stations such as temperature, wind
speed and humidity levels help PG&E meteorologists evaluate
where severe weather may be headed and inform utility operational
planning. During a PSPS, PG&E turns off specific power lines,
based on severe weather conditions, for public safety. This is to
prevent tree branches and other debris from contacting energized
power lines.
“We know that losing power disrupts lives, especially for our
customers with medical needs. That is why we are finding ways to
reduce the impact of PSPS events without compromising safety. The
sole focus of a PSPS is to keep our customers safe,” said Mark
Quinlan, Vice President of PSPS Operations and Execution.
Since 2018, PG&E has installed more than 1,200 weather
stations mostly across high fire-threat areas in Northern and
Central California.
“Observations from the weather stations contribute to the
improvement of our predictive capabilities for PSPS events. We now
have a historical database of these observations, many in remote
areas where we have never had this level of detailed data before,
and it is now used to help fine-tune our models to better predict
when critical fire weather conditions may occur,” said Ashley
Helmetag, Senior PG&E Meteorologist. “As the model is improved,
the forecast becomes more accurate, allowing meteorologists to
limit the scope of PSPS events to the areas where the riskiest fire
weather conditions are expected, and to do so with higher
confidence.”
These 200 new weather stations across PG&E’s service
territory are now sending hyperlocal data not only to PG&E
meteorologists, but also to analysts and experts in PG&E’s
Wildfire Safety Operations Center (WSOC). The WSOC is the hub where
PG&E detects, evaluates, monitors, and responds to wildfire
threats across its service area.
The information from these stations is also viewable by the
public at pge.com/weather and is combined with other weather
station information and shared with partners through MesoWest.
Weather stations are just one part of PG&E’s Community
Wildfire Safety Program. The program also includes the installation
of hundreds of sectionalizing devices to break the grid into
smaller pieces and hardening hundreds of miles of lines, poles, and
other infrastructure to reduce wildfire risk and lessen the effects
of PSPS events on customers.
Coupled with PG&E’s growing network of weather data,
temporary generation and microgrids, these tools and technologies
helped keep the lights on for hundreds of thousands of customers
during the PSPS events in 2020, as compared to those events in
2019.
About PG&E
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E
Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is a combined natural gas and electric
utility serving more than 16 million people across 70,000 square
miles in Northern and Central California. For more information,
visit pge.com and pge.com/news.
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