PG&E implements several initiatives to mitigate against wildfire risk
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has put in place several new initiatives to mitigate the risks caused by wildfires.
Among the measures taken as part of the company’s Community Wildfire Safety Program, PG&E has undertaken a massive system hardening project. It installed stronger poles, covered lines, and put lines underground as part of a 241-mile hardening initiative. The company has also inspected, pruned, and removed vegetation deemed a wildfire risk. This has been done across 939 miles out of a planned 1,800 total miles. Further, PG&E installed 116 advanced weather stations and 50 more high-definition cameras. The company plans to install 400 and 200 for the year, respectively. In addition, the company installed transmission line switches to redirect power and keep communities energized and created plans to locate temporary generation at up to 48 substations during a wildfire emergency.
“Wildfire season is upon us, and the public can be assured of PG&E’s unwavering efforts to improve public safety and further reduce wildfire risk. The steps we are taking to keep our customers and communities safe are unprecedented and include everything from more robust vegetation management and hardening the grid to making our Public Safety Power Shutoff events smaller and shorter to making our website more resilient,” Michael Lewis, senior vice president of Electric Operations for PG&E, said.
PG&E is also working on cutting restoration times in half compared to 2019 so that power is restored to the majority of customers within 12 daylight hours after severe weather has occurred. Further, it has nearly doubled the use of helicopter fleet during events from 35 to 65.
PG&E encourages all customers to update their contact information at www.pge.com/mywildfirealerts and develop a plan to be ready for emergencies.
