Wildfires: PG&E told to add safeguards
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. must hire new treetrimming supervisors, improve records about the age of risky electrical equipment and bolster the way it inspects highvoltage power lines under a recent order from a federal judge.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup imposed the mandates Friday as additional conditions on PG&E’s probation arising from the deadly 2010 San Bruno gas pipeline explosion. It comes after months of backandforth among Alsup, PG&E and others as the judge sought further ways to help prevent the company from starting more major wildfires, such as those sparked by its equipment over the past five years.
Alsup’s latest decision replaces an earlier and stricter order that could have made PG&E hire many more inspectors and force contractors who work on transmission towers to carry enough insurance to “cover losses suffered by the public should their inspections be deficient and thereby start a wildfire.”
PG&E urged Alsup to reconsider that decision and proposed a more modest set of conditions in June after conferring with federal prosecutors and the company’s courtappointed monitor. Friday’s order adopts those conditions in full.
By Sept. 1, PG&E must hire a vegetation management inspection manager to help oversee the contractors who cut branches and trees so they do not fall on power lines and start fires.
Starting at the end of September and continuing through January 2021, PG&E must
“We focused most remain important on our responsibility — the safety of the customers and communities we serve.”
Pacific Gas and Electric Co.
then hire a total of 30 people who will “conduct infield oversight of PG&E contractors while the work is being performed, verifying and correcting any deviation from applicable scopes of work pursuant to PG&E policies and legal requirements,” the order says.
Additionally, PG&E must “conduct a reasonable search” for records about the age and installation date for certain transmission tower equipment in highfirethreat areas, according to the order. Where such records are not available, the company has to make conservative estimates. PG&E will factor locationspecific conditions into a program that will estimate how long it expects critical transmission equipment to last safely.
That condition is aimed at preventing a repeat of a disaster similar to the 2018 Camp Fire, which was started when a worn hook broke on a centuryold transmission tower in Butte County. It was the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in state history, and the company recently pleaded guilty to 84 felony counts of involuntary manslaughter over it.
Finally, PG&E is required to hire a new crew that will oversee equipment inspections of transmission lines, the heavyduty power lines supported by tall metal towers. The company must replace certain kinds of hardware, including the type of hook responsible for the Camp Fire, within 90 days when the hardware gets close to losing 50% of its material.
Alsup stressed in his order that the 50% criteria was a minimum performance standard and said “there will be circumstances where safety is in danger” even when pieces of transmission towers have not yet reached that threshold.
“Under no circumstances shall PG&E contend that the Court has blessed ‘approaching 50%’ as an acceptable benchmark for replacement of coldend hardware,” Alsup said. “Safety requires replacement on a casebycase basis, not just when certain coldend hardware approaches 50% material loss.”
PG&E said in an emailed statement that it shares the goals of Alsup, federal lawyers, its courtappointed monitor and state regulators “to further improve wildfire safety for our customers and communities and to eliminate utilitycaused wildfires.”
“We remain focused on our most important responsibility — the safety of the customers and communities we serve, and doing right by the victims of past wildfires,” the company’s statement said.