PG&E releases 2020 Wildfire Mitigation Plan

Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) submitted its 2020 Wildfire Mitigation Plan, which outlines how it will expand and enhance the company’s efforts to address the growing threat of extreme weather and wildfires.

Wildfires have become a growing threat in PG&E’s service area. In 2012, just 15 percent of PG&E’s service area was designated as having an elevated wildfire risk. Today, it’s more than 50 percent. Multiple factors — including prolonged periods of high temperatures, extreme dryness, tinder-dry grass, and record-high winds – have elevated the risk.

The 2020 Wildfire Mitigation Plan, submitted to the California Public Utilities Commission for review, calls for new grid technology; hardening of the electric system; accelerated inspections of electric infrastructure; enhanced vegetation management around power lines; and real-time monitoring 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,” Michael Lewis, senior vice president, Electric Operations at PF&E, said. “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.”

Specifically, the plan includes changes to make public safety power shutoff (PSPS) events smaller in scope and shorter in duration to lessen the overall impacts of shutoffs while working to keep customers and communities safe. Toward this end, it calls for the installation of 592 automated sectionalizing devices on distribution lines to reduce the number of communities without power during a PSPS event. Further, it calls for the addition of 23 transmission switches capable of redirecting power during a PSPS event and operationalizing additional microgrids to stay energized during a PSPS event.

In addition, it will bolster PG&E’s ability to provide backup power to some critical service providers, such as major transportation thoroughfares, medical centers, and fire departments. Also, it seeks to enhance meteorology technology, double the helicopter fleet, and deploy additional field crews after a weather event.

It also includes strategies to reduce the potential for wildfire ignitions in high fire-threat areas. This can be done by pruning or removing more than 1 million trees around power lines; installing more than 240 miles of stronger poles and covered power lines; installing nearly 200 new, high-definition cameras in high fire-threat areas; and monitoring wildfire risks in real time from the Wildfire Safety Operations Center.

“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,” Debbie Powell, vice president, asset & risk management, Community Wildfire Safety Program, said. “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.”

To bolster its resources in the area of wildfire mitigation and other safety concerns, PG&E hired Francisco Benavides to the position of Vice President and chief safety officer. Benavides joins PG&E from Alcoa, where he served as vice president of environmental, health, and safety. He will be responsible for establishing governing standards and expectations for safety implementation across the company, identifying areas of safety risk, and developing preventive and corrective action plans.

“We welcome Francisco’s extensive knowledge and global experience—across many industry sectors—that he brings to PG&E at this critical time for California. I know that he is committed to upholding our most important responsibility, which is keeping our customers, communities, and workforce safe every single day,” Bill Johnson, PG&E president and CEO, said.