Legislators scrutinize PG&E’s role in wildfires

As winds picked up in Sonoma and Napa counties the night deadly fires broke out in October, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. shut down some devices on its power lines that have a history of sparking fires.

Across the two counties, however, the utility company disabled just three of hundreds of the machines, known as reclosers, it operates on lines there.

Reclosers, like automated circuit breakers, send pulses of electricity through power lines that appear to be malfunctioning. If no damage is detected, the recloser automatically restarts the flow of power. But if the lines are compromised and are touching trees or other flammable material, the bursts of electricity can spark flames.

PG&E disclosed the information in a letter sent Thursday to state Sen. Jerry

Hill, D-San Mateo, who has long advocated for safer use of the devices.

“A recloser, by its nature and how it functions, can easily start fires if they’re not deactivated,” Hill said. “When we see PG&E only turned off three reclosers in the entire area of Sonoma and Napa counties, it leads one to believe that many weren’t deactivated, and that could have presented a potentially dangerous situation.”

State investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the fires in Sonoma and Napa counties. PG&E power lines are suspected, investigators have said, but it’s not yet known whether they contributed to the blazes.

Many homeowners already have filed suit against PG&E, accusing the utility of improperly maintaining its equipment. Emergency dispatch records reviewed by The Chronicle found dozens of reports of damaged or sparking power lines and transformers across Sonoma County on Oct. 8 and Oct. 9.

Reclosers are used to help prevent unnecessary power outages, which can potentially impede first responders and the operation of critical facilities such as hospitals during an emergency, PG&E wrote in its letter to Hill.

“As a general policy, PG&E’s goal is to avoid sustained power outages, which are more than a mere inconvenience,” the company wrote.

The devices, however, have been partially implicated in past wildfires, including one in Australia that killed 119 people and the 2007 Witch Fire in San Diego County — one of the most destructive in California history.

The Witch Fire was caused by a damaged transmission line that rained hot particles on a grassy field in a rural area east of Escondido, according to a December regulatory filing with the California Public Utilities Commission.

A recloser sent multiple surges of power through the line before San Diego Gas & Electric Co. shut it off. By that time, sparks had already ignited the blaze.

The filing noted that shutting off power is a “significant” decision because of its potential impacts on public safety, but it also faulted the utility company’s actions when it came to disabling energy to the line.

San Diego Gas & Electric Co., along with Southern California Edison, now regularly reprograms its reclosers during fire season so they don’t automatically try to restart power lines in high-risk areas.

“I’m sorry to see that it took the Witch Fires of 2007 for San Diego Gas & Electric to deactivate their reclosers immediately when there’s a problem,” Hill said. “And now it looks like we may have to suffer through the Wine Country fires for PG&E to learn that same lesson.”

PG&E launched a pilot program in May to disable reclosers in areas prone to wildfires during times of elevated risk. The program includes just 38 of the thousands of devices on its power lines across the state. All 38 were shut off on Oct. 8, PG&E said.

PG&E didn’t provide The Chronicle with a total tally of reclosers in Sonoma and Napa counties or within its coverage area.

The letter to Hill stated that PG&E would continue to expand the pilot program, but company spokesman Keith Stephens said he did not know when it would be completed.

“In determining whether and when to deactivate reclosing, PG&E must balance the competing and intertwined goals of safety and reliability,” the letter states.

PG&E disabled more reclosers than those in the pilot program during three weather events after Oct. 8, including a wind storm on Oct. 14 that threatened to further spread flames accross Northern California. The utility has the potential to disable most of its reclosers remotely.

Through the pilot program, PG&E hopes to be able to better weigh the pros and cons of deactivating the devices when fire risk is high.

“The decision to de-energize is not one taken in a vacuum. It effects all manner of public safety,” Stephens said. “When you turn off the power, you deactivate it for everything — cell phone towers, Wi-Fi, and grandma and grandpa’s garage doors.”

Hill plans to hold hearings early next year that look at the issues of reclosers and other fire safety measures.