California PUC Issues New Rules After Massive Fires
The California PUC (Public Utilities’ Commission) has come down hard on the state’s electric utility companies due to perceived shortcomings with regard to their handling of the recent fire emergencies that have plagued wide swaths of the state. Now, PG&E and other California utilities are working to implement additional steps to help minimize the impact of forest fires going forward.
Utility Reaction to the California PUC Criticism
Like I said, the utility companies are working on implementing a number of mitigation strategies. Many of them have already come up with some sweeping improvements.
For example, PG&E is doing the following:
- Developing a fire prediction center (the Wildfire Safety Operations Center) that will operate on a 24/7 basis.
- Adding hundreds of additional weather monitoring stations across the state.
- Contracting with out-of-sate firefighters so they can be called upon for emergencies.
- Implementing a variety of infrastructure storm hardening tactics such as replacing wooden poles with steel poles and moving more lines underground.
- Developing a policy for preemptive power line deactivation during fire emergencies.
While many of these have begun, others require California PUC approval in order to authorize the use of ratepayer funds to help pay for the initiatives. But all indications are that the initiatives will indeed be approved. In fact, the California PUC is considering requiring other state utilities to implement many of the same tactics as PG&E. Read this in-depth article from govtech.com for more information.
I applaud these efforts, because clearly something needs to be done. California seems to be burning more and more each year, a problem that will only increase as climate change progresses. Hopefully these tactics will prove effective, and utilities will continue to facilitate continuous improvement over time.
