PG&E Outlines Actions It’s Taking to Keep Customers and Communities Safe During 2020 Wildfire Season

As part of its ongoing efforts to further reduce wildfire risks, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has implemented a number of new and enhanced wildfire mitigation tools to keep customers and communities safe.

Despite the impacts of COVID-19 on our entire society, PG&E has remained focused on executing important wildfire safety work as part of the company’s Community Wildfire Safety Program. Key milestones accomplished by the PG&E crews and contractors who continue to work in the field during this pandemic, while physical distancing, to keep their neighbors and communities safe include, as of May 29:

• System Hardening: Installed stronger poles, covered lines and targeted undergrounding across 105 miles as part of a full-year plan for hardening 241 line miles.
• Enhanced Vegetation Management: Inspected, pruned and removed vegetation that poses a higher potential for wildfire risk; completed 939 miles out of a planned 1,800 total miles.
• More Weather Stations and Cameras: PG&E installed 116 advanced weather stations and 50 more high-definition cameras, with targets of 400 and 200 for the year, respectively.
• Sectionalizing Devices: Separated the distribution grid into smaller sections for operational flexibility; 216 devices out of 592 targeted for the year are now operational.
• Transmission Line Switches: Installed line switches to redirect power and keep communities energized. More than the 23 switches planned for this year have been installed.
• Substation Temporary Generation: Created plans to locate temporary generation at up to 48 substations during a PSPS event to allow PG&E to safely energize thousands of customers and shrink the footprint of the PSPS event.

“Wildfire season is upon us, and the public can be assured of PG&E’s unwavering efforts to improve public safety and further reduce wildfire risk. The steps we are taking to keep our customers and communities safe are unprecedented and include everything from more robust vegetation management and hardening the grid to making our Public Safety Power Shutoff events smaller and shorter to making our website more resilient,” said Michael Lewis, senior vice president of Electric Operations for PG&E.