CHICO — After another year of disastrous wildfires across the state and numerous power shut-offs, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. held a virtual town hall meeting Wednesday for residents of Butte and Plumas counties to discuss the utility company’s role in wildfire prevention efforts.
A number of topics were mentioned, but a majority of the conversation and subsequent questions from viewers centered around public safety power shut-offs — planned outages that the company announces ahead of forecasted adverse weather events, which typically includes high winds and low humidity combined with dry vegetation.
Though the state’s largest wildfires in 2020, including the August Complex and North Complex fires, were sparked by lightning strikes in mid-August, PG&E has been responsible for a number of fires in recent years, namely the 2018 Camp Fire in 85 people died.
“We know that in times in the past, we’ve fallen short, and that we really worked hard to try to regain that trust,” said Keith Stephens, PG&E’s chief communications officer, near the beginning of the town hall. “That’s by really mitigating the wildfire risk in our state, which continues to grow every year, and also how we can reduce the impact of (power shut-offs) on all of you.”
Butte County residents experienced five public safety power shut-offs between Sept. 7 and Oct. 28, primarily in the eastern foothill communities of the county. The largest one occurred from Sept. 7-10, impacting 13,800 customers, and also had the longest average restoration time, 14 hours, according to data PG&E presented during the town hall. There were also 10 damage or hazard incidents that were found while PG&E crews did patrols after the weather subsided.
Peak wind gusts of 72 miles per hour were recorded during the second of five power shut-offs, which occurred on Sept. 27-29 and impacted 11,000 customers, though it also had the shortest average restoration time of four hours.
David Hawks, a public safety specialist with PG&E, and former Cal Fire-Butte County chief, explained that the peak wind gusts were typically recorded in the Feather River drainage near Jarbo Gap and Concow.
PG&E was asked what the company is doing ahead of these weather events and the decisions that go into shutting off power. Hawks said PG&E is looking to improve its weather forecasting and meteorology by installing a number of weather sites in the area to better understand what’s happening in real time. PG&E is also looking at moving some power lines underground where it is deemed feasible and sectionalizing distribution lines to isolate areas with the hope of being able to turn power off on certain sections and keep others on.
“But we realize that the Jarbo Gap communities of Concow and Yankee Hill, specifically, that sit right there at the Jarbo Gap are very prone to wind, and hence, routinely are subject to (power shut-off) events,” Hawks said.
Another pertinent question posed to PG&E representatives during the town hall was, how much longer are public safety power shut-off events going to continue, or are they simply the “way of life” moving forward?
“That is truly the $64,000 dollar question, the million-dollar question,” Stephens said. “I think part of it is dependent on the climate, which we continue to see that it’s evolving.”
Stephens said the company hasn’t outlined a specific year-end mark for continuing, or ending the practice. He also said PG&E has looked to its “peers to the south,” San Diego Gas & Electric, which has been conducting power shut-offs for the better part of the past decade, Stevens noted, and the scope of the shut-offs has lessened over time. Stephens also said utilities in Oregon and elsewhere have considered implementing power shut-offs.
“I think it’s going to be with us for some time to come. I don’t want to put a specific year on it. But, it’s going to be something that we continue to grapple with together, both as PG&E, and as local citizens and communities That’s why we really need to work together to try to target the areas where the highest impacts are so we can work to mitigate those,” Stephens said.
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PG&E addresses power shut-offs, wildfire prevention during virtual town hall - Chico Enterprise-Record
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