California Seeks to Improve Community Engagement for Utility Power Shut-offs Ahead of Wildfire Season

The California Public Utilities Commission on April 27 proposed to revise the current guidelines for electric utilities’ Public Safety Power Shut-off, or PSPS, events ahead of the 2020 wildfire season. The revisions include new safety measures that utilities must adopt to better understand and address the needs of affected communities, and minimize the duration and impact of such an event. The proposal would strengthen existing guidelines to better address some of the issues that came to light during the 2019 shut off events. Utilities would be required to promote safety through improved communication efforts.

To better comprehend the needs of communities, utilities would establish regionalized working groups and advisory boards, and ensure that they directly hear from impacted communities to gather input for their planning. Utilities would develop communication and notification plans and ensure public access to precise locality information of event-impacted service points. Communications carriers would be provided with the IDs to be de-energized and re-energized to ensure they receive actionable notification, and they would deploy resources to minimize the impact on communication infrastructure. Further, utilities would work with local governments and community representatives to identify the assistance required for people with medical or safety risk of an extended outage. PSPS exercises would be conducted in areas with highest historical and projected risk of shut offs.

In order to minimize the duration of shut off events, utilities would establish a Community Resource Centers plan based on local demographic information to meet safety and functional needs of the community. The proposal requires service restoration within 24 hours from the termination of a shut off event. In PSPS-prone areas, utilities would ensure that backup generation is available to critical infrastructure during a shut off event.

Last May, the agency made enhancements to communication and notification guidelines for PSPS events, noting that proactive power outages must be a measure of last resort. In September and October, the state’s investor-owned electric utilities, notably Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric, proactively de-energized power lines during high wildfire danger weather conditions. Notably, PG&E shutoff power across 35 counties on Oct. 9, impacting about 729,000 customer accounts. The outage lasted until Oct. 12 for an average duration of 45 hours. Subsequently, the commission opened an investigation in November 2019 to determine whether the state’s investor-owned utilities prioritized safety and followed regulations during their proactive power shutoffs in late 2019 to avoid the risk of power lines starting wildfires.