PG&E Focused on Essential Safety and Wildfire Mitigation Projects as COVID-19 Pandemic Continues
April 03 2020 - 8:44PM
Business Wire
Utility Working to Minimize Customer Outages in
Light of Shelter-at-Home Orders
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) said today that it
remains focused and engaged on essential projects to provide
continuity of service during this critical time and for the safety
of its customers and communities. These essential projects involve
maintaining, repairing and upgrading the safety and reliability of
its gas and electric infrastructure as well as key wildfire
mitigations as the state and nation continue battling the COVID-19
virus.
California’s shelter-at-home order currently remains in effect
for all 40 million Californians and has been extended in key areas
until May 1. Importantly, the order exempts essential workers in
critical infrastructure sectors, including energy companies like
PG&E. This includes individuals performing any work necessary
to the operation and maintenance of gas and electrical systems and
services, including those that support other essential
services.
Defining Essential Electric Work
PG&E will continue performing electric work consistent with
the Governor’s priorities for essential services and for the safety
of our customers and communities including:
- Emergency response to restore electric service;
- Work to further the preparedness for Public Safety Power
Shutoff (PSPS) events as directed by the California Governor’s
Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), CAL FIRE and the California
Public Utilities Commission (CPUC);
- Enhanced and routine vegetation management;
- Critical maintenance; and
- Work associated with our Wildfire Mitigation Plan.
PG&E electric crews also will proceed with new business work
to support residential projects with residents ready to move in;
new business projects related to medical facilities, agencies,
labs, manufacturers or businesses supporting COVID-19 response; new
business projects in support of homeless shelters, elder-care
facilities, grocery stores and restaurants providing take-out
service.
Limiting Planned Outages
As PG&E continues with critical and essential safety and
maintenance projects, customer impacts will be minimized to the
extent possible. Where service interruptions are required to safely
complete critical and essential work, PG&E will work to limit
the number and duration of planned outages.
“We understand the impacts of a service interruption given the
current shelter-at-home orders for our communities, and the
potential disruption or hardship these outages may cause,” said
Laurie Giammona, PG&E’s Chief Customer Officer and its Senior
Vice President of Customer Care. “We appreciate our customers’
patience and support for our crews as we conduct our essential
safety and maintenance work.”
Projects outside of system safety and wildfire mitigation work
are being reviewed to determine whether they fit PG&E’s
definition of critical and essential work and to understand how the
work will impact customers.
First, the projects are reviewed to determine whether a portion
of or all of the work can be safely performed energized. If working
via energized methods is not possible, methods to reduce the impact
of the planned outages are evaluated, including potentially
reducing the duration of the planned outages, performing some of
this work during night-time hours or installing temporary
generation, which limits the outage duration to the time needed to
transfer customers between the PG&E source and the temporary
generation at the start and end of the job.
Defining Essential Gas Work
PG&E’s Gas Operations likewise will continue conducting
essential work to support its ongoing commitment to safely and
reliably deliver natural gas to customers. Some examples
include:
- Emergency response to restore gas service;
- Service restoration and relights;
- Regulatory code compliance work including safety surveys and
patrols of gas pipelines, maintenance essential to the safe
operation of the system, and fulfilling 811 requests to locate and
mark PG&E infrastructure;
- New customer connections and Work Requested by Others (WRO);
and
- Butte County Rebuild work.
‘Upholding Our Crucial Mission’
This work, at such an uncertain time, remains vital to customers
and communities.
“Our job at PG&E remains the same – to be there for our
customers and to uphold our crucial mission of providing reliable
gas and electric service while also keeping our customers and our
employees safe,” said Andy Vesey, PG&E Utility CEO and
President.
“Given the extraordinary COVID-19 situation, safe, consistent
gas and electric service are more important today than ever before.
Our crews remain in the field keeping our gas and electric service
functioning safely and smoothly, along with all restoration and
emergency work. We will adjust our service priorities and work as
needed to meet this commitment,” he added.
Those adjustments include how PG&E has changed some of its
work protocols to help safeguard the health and safety of our
workers and the general public, as well as to provide continuity of
service during this critical time. PG&E employees have been
given guidance on maintaining social distance and wearing
protective equipment.
Certain work outside the scope of essential work is being
delayed in order to maintain the reserve workforce and
effectiveness that will be necessary to maintain reliable service
for as long as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold. This
includes work that can either be delayed for a short period or does
not have an immediate impact on system safety or reliability. These
efforts may cause delays in meeting some work plan targets and
compliance obligations.
This situation is evolving, and we will continue to adjust our
work as necessary to deliver safe, reliable energy and to keep our
customers, communities, and employees safe. Please visit
www.pge.com/covid19 for more details and to see how the company is
supporting its customers and employees.
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 utilities in the United States. Based in San
Francisco, with more than 23,000 employees, the company delivers
some of the nation’s cleanest energy to nearly 16 million people in
Northern and Central California. For more information, visit
www.pge.com/ and www.pge.com/en/about/newsroom/index.page.
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