PG&E to run emergency exercise to prepare for wildfire season

Published on August 10, 2020 by Dave Kovaleski

Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is conducting an emergency exercise to prepare for the upcoming wildfire season.

During the five-day exercise, PG&E employees simulate real-life events that could happen during a real Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS). The exercise creates invaluable experience for the company’s frontline workers, and improved coordination with state and local partners, Michael Lewis, interim president of Pacific Gas & Electric Company, said.

“Nothing is more important than keeping our customers and their communities safe. We also know that when we call a Public Safety Power Shutoff to meet that responsibility, it can disrupt lives and cause hardship. These exercises help us ensure that if we forecast dangerous weather and a real event becomes necessary, we will be ready to respond efficiently and effectively while doing everything we can to minimize those impacts,” Lewis said.

The purpose of a PSPS is to reduce the risk of major wildfires caused by PG&E’s infrastructure during severe weather. When extreme weather conditions occur, PG&E will proactively de-energize lines, shutting off power for the safety of customers and communities. During an actual PSPS event, crews will inspect de-energized lines in high fire-risk areas — from the sky and from the ground—to identify and repair damaged lines or equipment before restoring power.

PG&E understands how challenging these power shutoff events are for its customers, so the company will only call a power shutoff when it is absolutely necessary for public safety. The company is working to make these shutoffs smaller, shorter, and smarter in 2020 and beyond.

PG&E has more than 730 advanced weather stations to pinpoint where severe weather is happening. Also, it is installing technology that limits the size of outages and reduces the number of customers affected. Further, it is increasing its helicopter fleet from 35 to 65 exclusive use helicopters while adding more field crews cut restoration times in half.