Utility tells regulators work to secure and protect power lines is reducing the need for pre-emptive blackouts

Burying lines, and installation of new technology is helping reduce frequency, duration and scope of PSPS blackouts

photo credit: Marc Albert/KRCB
PG&E crews trimming trees away from power lines in Sebastopol 8/8/2024

Utility Pacific Gas and Electric told state regulators today it's doing its part to cut down on incidents where the company's power lines and other infrastructure sparks wildfires.

Company representatives, at a Thursday workshop before the California Public Utilities Commission, said they are making strides in reducing the need for precautionary blackouts that PG&E calls Public Safety Power Shutoffs.

PG&E's Mark Quinlan says the utility has installed a variety of new infrastructure and systems,

"High definition cameras, weather stations, veg management and sectionalizing devices that we've installed over the years, and the undergrounding projects that we have been able to execute. We didn't have any of those in 2017 and now we are in a dramatically different position," Quinlan said.

in 2019 PG&E instituted eight shutoffs, impacting about 2 million households.

Last year, it says it staged two, affecting 51-hundred homes and businesses.

That's according to information PG&E provided to the California Public Utilities Commission.

The company says it has also installed technology allowing it to shut down circuits within a fraction of a second when a fault is detected.

Shawn Holder, PG&E's director of public safety power shutoffs said strides were made last year and the work continues.

"In 2023 we took several significant steps to improve our PSPS program These included conducting functional exercises to review roles, test our policies and procedures, and enhance coordination. Refining and automating segment guides to assess circuits affected by PSPS, insuring more efficient field operations and further streamlining automating the process to develop and send communications to agencies and customers. In 2024, we continue to improve by updating our risk models for better assessment, implementing targeted enhancements to our back-end data systems refining communication protocols and updating training."

PG&E's comments came during public hearings Thursday in San Francisco about preemptive power shutoffs throughout the state.