PGE considering cutting off power in Northern California later this week due to fire hazard (Los Angeles: credit card, homes)

[rjm1cc]

Seems like state oversight has been lacking for years. Has the state started enforcing adequate maintenance?

[TheShadow]

One issue is that PG&E is so large, and their lines cover so many hundreds of miles, that the effort needed to maintain a system that vast would employ far more crews than they actually employ. They would need to contract out huge amounts of maintenance, and catching up the vast backlog of unmaintained transmission corridors and distribution networks will take years. This is not a situation that developed overnight, but the fact that it's going to be hard and take a long time doesn't mean it doesn't have to be done. It just means that you need to start immediately and do the work on a massive scale, even if that means running in the red for some time. This is not something that can be forever foisted off onto the customers. It is their obligation to protect the public, and simply turning off the power everytime the wind blows isn't going to cut it.

[mountainrose]

FIVE DAYS??
With no electricity at all? That’s just crazy.
That means whole businesses have to shut down for a whole work week. People can’t work, get paid. Kids can’t go to school.....no hot showers.....freezers defrost....
Am I misunderstanding this or missing something here?

[Bruceski44]

Any discussion of wildfires in CA must include how the state's hands-off policy of managing brush and forest lands resulted in huge overgrowth of fuel for the fires. No controlled burning, no regular trimming, no maintenance at all. To top that off, the state (at least last time I checked) has no fixed-wing firefighting aircraft at its disposal until later in the season. Since the state does not control its own force, it must stand in line behind other states and provinces before it can contract the resources. The state has some liability for the spread of the fires, but being the state, that chicken never comes home to roost. The elected leaders have been misusing the state's vast revenues for years, all on the wrong things.

[RationalExpectations]

Originally Posted by TheShadow

No you don't understand, jrkliny. The power lines, transformers etc, are what is CAUSING the fires. PG&E is the huge power company that provides power to a large portion of the state. They are notorious for poor maintenance of their equipment and extremely inadequate tree trimming and vegetation mgmt. This lack of vegetation mgmt, combined with extreme dry conditions, and high winds cause tree branches in the power lines to make contact with two conductors causing arcing and the power line falls to the ground starting a fire.

I'm under the impression that those trees are not on PG&E property, with very minor exception. Most of the trees are on public property (Federal, State, County, Municipal, Special Districts, etc). I believe PG&E is responsible for tree trimming only because of legislation & regulation - the Public Sector didn't want to trim its own damn trees.

Other trees are on private property. Again, my understanding is PG&E is responsible for trimming trees on someone's private property solely because of legislation & regulation

If I'm correct about the above (perhaps someone can correct me if I'm mistaken), then much of the problem could have been solved in the first place by both private and public sector entities that own the land assuming responsibility for their trees including their own damn tree trimming.

[expatCA]

Originally Posted by janellen

I have Southern Cal Edison down here where I live. No notices to speak of yet.

There is now in SD County.

[V8 Vega]

If you have a electric car then you have no car too.

[expatCA]

Originally Posted by max210

And they want the state to go full electric.

Humm, then they could shut the whole State down.

[TheShadow]

Originally Posted by RationalExpectations

I'm under the impression that those trees are not on PG&E property, with very minor exception. Most of the trees are on public property (Federal, State, County, Municipal, Special Districts, etc). I believe PG&E is responsible for tree trimming only because of legislation & regulation - the Public Sector didn't want to trim its own damn trees.

Other trees are on private property. Again, my understanding is PG&E is responsible for trimming trees on someone's private property solely because of legislation & regulation

If I'm correct about the above (perhaps someone can correct me if I'm mistaken), then much of the problem could have been solved in the first place by both private and public sector entities that own the land assuming responsibility for their trees including their own damn tree trimming.

The utility is responsible for managing the vegetation that interferes with, or is at risk, in it's transmission corridors and beneath it's distribution network. The risk caused by the utility's equipment would not exist, but for the utility's presence on that land. The utility has an easement on public and private land that allows it to do what is necessary for safety, and to maintain its equipment. As a 25 year employee of a California municipal power agency, we trimmed trees and vegetation in those corridors whether the owner of the property, public or private, liked it or not. It was our obligation, and our right, to do so. We displeased many a homeowner when we had to prune or cut down trees on their property, and we mow down a large swath of trees, brush, and grasslands under our transmission lines as required, national forest or not. Without such maintenance, not only would we risk destroying public and private property for which we would be legally and financially responsible, but we would also lose our own assets and incur vast expenses to replace our own equipment. To not do so would be morally and fiscally imprudent, a disservice to its customers and shareholders, and generally a bad steward of the land, and that's what PG&E is guilty of.

[janellen]

Originally Posted by expatCA

There is now in SD County.

Edison's website is super slow right now, but there's still no alerts from them for Tulare County. PGE covers some of TC's area and I saw something about their alerts on local news last night.


You guys get a lot more wind in SD than we do here.