Released August 17, 2023 | SUGAR LAND
en
Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--In its fight to prevent wildfires in California, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (Oakland, California) recently decided to cut fewer trees and install more technology. The electric and gas utility, a unit of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG) (Oakland), is trying to find the most cost-effective way to minimize the risk of wildfires. In recent years, PG&E equipment has repeatedly failed, igniting numerous wildfires in California.
Speaking July 27 on an earnings call, PG&E Corporation Chief Executive Patricia Poppe said the company was rolling out a "new and expanded Wildfire Mitigation Plan" as part of implementing its "layers of protection strategy," which the utility anticipates will reduce wildfire risks.
Two years ago, PG&E launched what it called a "moonshot" initiative to bury about 10,000 miles of electric distribution lines, at an estimated cost of $13.5 billion, to reduce wildfire risk. For more on that, see July 26, 2021, article - PG&E Unveils 'Moonshot' Effort to Underground 10,000 Miles of Distribution Line to Reduce Wildfire Risk.
On the earnings call, company officials did not back away from undergrounding up to 10,000 miles of distribution line. But they announced a greater reliance on advanced technology to preempt or contain the effects of broken poles and wires in heavily wooded areas served by the utility.
Speaking of the new technology investments, Poppe extolled the benefits of "downed conductor detection technology, which involves installing new hardware in the field" to almost instantaneously detect when a conductor is failing and shut off the flow of electricity.
"Back in 2017," Poppe said, "we were reacting and responding to hazard. The investments we've made since then have enabled a dramatic shift to predicting and preventing." She discussed several "important investments in innovation" made since then, including:
"We've implemented a host of operational mitigations, including enhanced power line safety settings on 44,000 miles of line in and adjacent to our high fire risk areas," Poppe continued. "We've enabled public safety power shutoffs (PSPS) when conditions warrant them and, new for 2023, we've deployed partial voltage force out and down conductor detection (technologies). Our system has never been safer, and yet, it will be even safer still tomorrow and every day after that."
Under red-flag conditions, generally defined as high temperatures, low humidity and high winds, electric utilities in California are allowed to pre-emptively shut off power in certain high-risk areas. These public safety power shutoffs (PSPS) have been unpopular with customers.
Poppe told investors: "Safety permeates through everything we do and the presence of controls, including our layers of protection, leads to manageable and predictable outcomes."
She added, "The data tell the story. Through mid-July, reportable ignitions in our high fire threat district have decreased 53% from the equivalent date in 2017. Last year, we saw a 68% reduction in ignitions on circuits with enhanced powerline safety settings (EPSS), and a 99% reduction in acres burned. The data so far suggests we are on track to see further improvement in 2023. Our hard work over the past five years has dramatically changed our risk exposure and the fundamental safety of our system, and we aren't stopping there."
While the utility was clear about its long-term goal of burying up to 10,000 miles of electric distribution line--it has completed about 327 miles of line this year--it was far less specific about exactly how it would reduce its vegetation-management efforts.
After The Wall Street Journal published an article August 2 that said the utility would discontinue its enhanced vegetation management (EVM) program because the advanced technology investments lowered wildfire risks at a lower cost, the utility issued a lengthy statement August 7 that said, in part, "To be clear, the essential work of our trained PG&E vegetation-management inspectors and our contract vegetation-management crews to keep trees away from powerlines will continue."
However, it added, over the last four years, "we realized we needed to evolve to engineered controls (such as Enhanced Powerline Safety Settings), because we cannot identify every tree that may pose a risk. As we have continued to evaluate each measure's effectiveness, and with the rapid evolution of technology and innovation, we have successfully implemented the new mitigations. Several new mitigations are now in place and more in-depth risk modeling allows us to target resilience efforts more effectively."
The utility said this year it is "restructuring" its vegetation management program "based on a risk-informed approach. Recent data and analysis demonstrate that the enhanced vegetation management (EVM) program risk reduction is less than EPSS and additional operational mitigations such as Partial Voltage Detection capabilities. As a result, we transitioned the EVM Program to three new risk-informed" programs: focused tree inspections, vegetation management for operational mitigations and creating an inventory of trees that will be removed."
The utility statement added: "To this end, our 2023-2026 General Rate Case revised proposal ... reduces our planned vegetation management spend in favor of more effective and permanent (technology-based) risk mitigation measures."
In an interview, a PG&E spokesperson said he could not comment on the Wall Street Journal's repeated use of the word "discontinued" to refer to the utility's enhanced vegetation management efforts.
PG&E provides electricity to about 5.5 million customers across a service territory of about 70,000 square miles in northern and central California. Much of its northern California service area is heavily wooded. Wildfires have wracked its service area in recent years, some triggered by failing utility equipment. In 2017, devastating wildfires scorched wine country in northern California. In 2018, the Camp Fire destroyed the city of Paradise, about 82 miles north of Sacramento, killing at least 85 people and destroying about 14,000 homes. In 2019, failing PG&E equipment sparked the Kincade Fire, which burned more than 77,000 acres of vegetation in Sonoma County, the heart of California wine country. The utility has been convicted of negligence and wrongful deaths, and paid billions of dollars of fines and settlements with affected people and communities.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).
Speaking July 27 on an earnings call, PG&E Corporation Chief Executive Patricia Poppe said the company was rolling out a "new and expanded Wildfire Mitigation Plan" as part of implementing its "layers of protection strategy," which the utility anticipates will reduce wildfire risks.
Two years ago, PG&E launched what it called a "moonshot" initiative to bury about 10,000 miles of electric distribution lines, at an estimated cost of $13.5 billion, to reduce wildfire risk. For more on that, see July 26, 2021, article - PG&E Unveils 'Moonshot' Effort to Underground 10,000 Miles of Distribution Line to Reduce Wildfire Risk.
On the earnings call, company officials did not back away from undergrounding up to 10,000 miles of distribution line. But they announced a greater reliance on advanced technology to preempt or contain the effects of broken poles and wires in heavily wooded areas served by the utility.
Speaking of the new technology investments, Poppe extolled the benefits of "downed conductor detection technology, which involves installing new hardware in the field" to almost instantaneously detect when a conductor is failing and shut off the flow of electricity.
"Back in 2017," Poppe said, "we were reacting and responding to hazard. The investments we've made since then have enabled a dramatic shift to predicting and preventing." She discussed several "important investments in innovation" made since then, including:
- Installing more than 600 high-definition cameras now with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities
- Installing more than 1,400 weather stations
- Installing almost 1,400 sectionalizing devices on distribution lines
- Hardening more than 1,300 miles of line
- Burying more than 300 miles of power line
"We've implemented a host of operational mitigations, including enhanced power line safety settings on 44,000 miles of line in and adjacent to our high fire risk areas," Poppe continued. "We've enabled public safety power shutoffs (PSPS) when conditions warrant them and, new for 2023, we've deployed partial voltage force out and down conductor detection (technologies). Our system has never been safer, and yet, it will be even safer still tomorrow and every day after that."
Under red-flag conditions, generally defined as high temperatures, low humidity and high winds, electric utilities in California are allowed to pre-emptively shut off power in certain high-risk areas. These public safety power shutoffs (PSPS) have been unpopular with customers.
Poppe told investors: "Safety permeates through everything we do and the presence of controls, including our layers of protection, leads to manageable and predictable outcomes."
She added, "The data tell the story. Through mid-July, reportable ignitions in our high fire threat district have decreased 53% from the equivalent date in 2017. Last year, we saw a 68% reduction in ignitions on circuits with enhanced powerline safety settings (EPSS), and a 99% reduction in acres burned. The data so far suggests we are on track to see further improvement in 2023. Our hard work over the past five years has dramatically changed our risk exposure and the fundamental safety of our system, and we aren't stopping there."
While the utility was clear about its long-term goal of burying up to 10,000 miles of electric distribution line--it has completed about 327 miles of line this year--it was far less specific about exactly how it would reduce its vegetation-management efforts.
After The Wall Street Journal published an article August 2 that said the utility would discontinue its enhanced vegetation management (EVM) program because the advanced technology investments lowered wildfire risks at a lower cost, the utility issued a lengthy statement August 7 that said, in part, "To be clear, the essential work of our trained PG&E vegetation-management inspectors and our contract vegetation-management crews to keep trees away from powerlines will continue."
However, it added, over the last four years, "we realized we needed to evolve to engineered controls (such as Enhanced Powerline Safety Settings), because we cannot identify every tree that may pose a risk. As we have continued to evaluate each measure's effectiveness, and with the rapid evolution of technology and innovation, we have successfully implemented the new mitigations. Several new mitigations are now in place and more in-depth risk modeling allows us to target resilience efforts more effectively."
The utility said this year it is "restructuring" its vegetation management program "based on a risk-informed approach. Recent data and analysis demonstrate that the enhanced vegetation management (EVM) program risk reduction is less than EPSS and additional operational mitigations such as Partial Voltage Detection capabilities. As a result, we transitioned the EVM Program to three new risk-informed" programs: focused tree inspections, vegetation management for operational mitigations and creating an inventory of trees that will be removed."
The utility statement added: "To this end, our 2023-2026 General Rate Case revised proposal ... reduces our planned vegetation management spend in favor of more effective and permanent (technology-based) risk mitigation measures."
In an interview, a PG&E spokesperson said he could not comment on the Wall Street Journal's repeated use of the word "discontinued" to refer to the utility's enhanced vegetation management efforts.
PG&E provides electricity to about 5.5 million customers across a service territory of about 70,000 square miles in northern and central California. Much of its northern California service area is heavily wooded. Wildfires have wracked its service area in recent years, some triggered by failing utility equipment. In 2017, devastating wildfires scorched wine country in northern California. In 2018, the Camp Fire destroyed the city of Paradise, about 82 miles north of Sacramento, killing at least 85 people and destroying about 14,000 homes. In 2019, failing PG&E equipment sparked the Kincade Fire, which burned more than 77,000 acres of vegetation in Sonoma County, the heart of California wine country. The utility has been convicted of negligence and wrongful deaths, and paid billions of dollars of fines and settlements with affected people and communities.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).
