In Advance of 2018 Wildfire Season, PG&E Takes Action with Comprehensive Community Wildfire Safety Program
SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–To help meet the climate-driven challenge of increasing wildfires and
extreme weather events, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) today
announced a comprehensive Community Wildfire Safety Program.
PG&E is working in close coordination with first responders, civic and
community leaders and customers on this program. These efforts will have
an immediate impact on reducing wildfire threats and improving safety,
in advance of the start of wildfire season in Northern and Central
California.
Years of drought, extreme heat and 129 million dead trees have created a
“new normal” for California. In the interest of public safety, and
following the wildfires in 2017, PG&E is implementing additional
precautionary measures intended to reduce the risk of wildfires. PG&E is
continuously evolving its operating practices in response to new
standards and regulations – but this new normal means even more must be
done in partnership to strengthen the safety and resilience of the
state’s energy infrastructure.
The multi-faceted program focuses on three key areas:
- bolstering wildfire prevention and emergency response efforts;
-
working with customers and first responders to put in place new and
enhanced safety measures; and -
doing more over the long term to harden the electric system to help
reduce wildfire threats and to keep customers safe.
“Our system and our mindset need to be laser-focused on working together
to help prevent devastating wildfires like the ones in the North Bay in
October and in Southern California in December from happening again, and
in responding quickly and effectively if they do,” said Pat Hogan,
PG&E’s senior vice president of Electric Operations. “Extraordinary
times call for extraordinary measures, which is what the Community
Wildfire Safety Program is all about.”
Among the actions that PG&E is taking:
Wildfire Prevention and Emergency Response
-
Establishing a Wildfire Safety Operations Center to monitor wildfire
risks in real-time and coordinate prevention and response efforts with
first responders. -
Securing additional PG&E firefighting resources to respond to
wildfires, protect poles, power lines and other electrical equipment
during fires, and assist utility crews working in high fire danger
areas. -
Expanding the company’s weather forecasting and modeling by installing
a network of PG&E-owned and operated weather stations across the
service area.
New and Enhanced Safety Measures
-
Augmenting PG&E’s already rigorous vegetation management practices
based on the High Fire-Threat District map adopted in January 2018 by
the California Public Utilities Commission. New standards require
keeping trees and limbs farther away from power lines. We also will be
working to create fire safety zones around power lines in the highest
fire-threat areas. -
Refining and executing protocols for proactively turning off electric
power lines in areas where extreme fire conditions are occurring, and
implementing the appropriate communications and resources to help
inform, prepare and support our customers and communities. -
Expanding our practice of disabling line reclosers and circuit
breakers in high fire-risk areas during fire season.
Electric System Hardening Over the Long Term
-
Investing in stronger, coated power lines, spacing lines farther apart
to prevent line-on-line contact during wind storms, and replacing wood
poles with non-wood poles in the coming years. -
Expanding our practice of pre-treating electric poles with long-term
fire retardant in areas where the fire danger is high. -
Partnering with communities to develop and integrate microgrids to
help support community facility resilience in the event of major
natural disasters.
Hogan, who has participated in recent legislative and regulatory
hearings on wildfires, noted that PG&E won’t be able to do this alone.
It will require a comprehensive and collaborative partnership that
includes civic and community leaders, first responders and other public
safety authorities, state leaders, and energy companies.
“All of us need to work together to make decisions and put in place
solutions based on the dynamics of climate change and severe weather
events,” Hogan said. “Our communities are depending on us to take strong
and preventive actions that will protect our state’s energy future and
help reduce the risk of wildfire in California.”
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 energy companies in the United States. Based in San
Francisco, with more than 20,000 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 pge.com/news.
Contacts
Pacific Gas and Electric Company
Media Relations, 415-973-5930
