PG&E unveils new powerline safety settings during virtual event
To help protect customers and communities during this hot and historically dry wildfire season, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has adjusted the sensitivity of some of its electric equipment in high fire-threat districts to automatically turn off power faster if the system detects a problem.
PG&E hosted a webinar on Enhanced Powerline Safety Settings (EPSS), Tuesday, November 2, for all counties in their service area. Open to customers, the event was an addition to the outreach that has taken place over the last month. The event comes in the wake of a federal probe revealed earlier this week to determine if the embattled utility caused the Dixie Fire, the second-largest blaze in California history.
“It’s no secret to anyone that our state has received quite a bit of rain, and that is just fantastic news. But with that rain, we still have areas of our service territory that are at risk for fires, and it’s predominantly in the southern end of our service territory. We’ve taken a stand and catastrophic wildfires shall stop period. We have a lot of different things that we’re doing at PG&E to make that stand a reality. One of them is public safety power shut off events, which (people) might be more familiar with than the enhanced power line safety settings,” said Vice President, Wildfire Mitigation Operations and Execution at PG&E, Mark Quinlan.
“Fortunately, we got some good snow, wet weather and some blessings from Mother Nature here with the wet weather recently, but our wildfire season is not over. There is risk and we’re looking to mitigate that,” said Senior Director of Electric System Inspections at PG&E, Jason Regan. “We’re increasing our infrared patrols and maintenance inspection programs in your communities to help identify failure before it finds us.”
“You got a mobile phone, you got an opportunity to go to pge.com/reportit. It is a new app that we’ve implemented over the last couple of months. It allows you to basically take a picture of anything you see, hear or smell that doesn’t look right, whether you absolutely know if it’s PG&E equipment or not”, said Regan, encouraging the community to sign up. The app currently counts with more than 10,000 users. “We really need your help to prevent outages before they happen,” added Quinlan. “Wildfire problem in California is a California problem. Everybody has a part to play.”
“We’re looking to keep communities safer and to reinforce our keen focus not only on safety but improving reliability in our communications in those areas where we have struggled quite a bit,” said Director of Customer Strategy at PG&E, Dave Canny. He believes EPSS will likely be turned off for the season.
Canny talked about the programs offered by the company, such as the portable battery program that offers fully subsidized batteries to low income medical baseline customers who live in high fire threat districts throughout its service area. “We also have a generator rebate program that provides up to $1,000 to customers who rely on well water pumping, are part of the medical baseline program, or run a small non critical care essential business. We’re also proud to partner with 211 to provide free confidential support and resources during times of critical need,” he concluded.
Activities around wildfire safety can be accessed at pge.com/wildfiresafety.