Pacific Gas and Electric Company conducts earthquake exercise at new emergency operations facility

Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) conducted a large-scale earthquake exercise on Jan. 23 at its new emergency operations center in Vacaville, Calif.

Hundreds of PG&E employees participated in the emergency exercise. They were joined by representatives from several agencies, as either observers or participants, including the Department of Energy, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the California Office of Emergency Services, the California Public Utilities Commission, Bay Area Rapid Transit, the California Independent System Operator and the Edison Electric Institute.

The event simulated a magnitude 7.0 earthquake with the epicenter near Oakland and aftershocks in the East Bay Area. In the simulated scenario, approximately 1.5 million PG&E electric customers and about 200,000 gas customers lost service.

“We live in earthquake country, and seismologists say that the Big One is not a matter of if, but when,” Mark Quinlan, senior director of emergency preparedness and response for PG&E, said. “PG&E has a plan, and we practiced executing that plan in a real world scenario. It’s vitally important that our customers are prepared, too, by having individual and family emergency plans, go bags, and making sure PG&E has your updated contact information.”

PG&E Vacaville Emergency Response Center, a 30,000-square-foot critical facility, opened in 2019. The facility contains emergency operations for electric, gas, and energy procurement. It has redundant utility power, backup generator power, and backup and telecom infrastructure and was built to a 1.5 Importance Factor, which is 50 percent higher than the California commercial building standard.