Pacific Gas and Electric officials on Wednesday reported on the company’s efforts to improve safety and conditions for its power facilities, which have included increased inspections and repairs, and, in some cases, permanently deenergizing transmission lines.
The safety work is running parallel with the company’s plans for public safety power shutoffs which could potentially deenergize large portions of the state – particularly high risk areas shown in the California Public Utilities Commission's fire threat map – in the case of serious weather conditions and fire danger.
As part of its Community Wildfire Safety Program – implemented after the wildland fires of 2017 and 2018 – PG&E said it has accelerated safety inspections and repairs across its vast 72,000-square-mile service area.
Through the end of May, PG&E has completed visual inspections of approximately 99 percent of its distribution infrastructure and visual or aerial inspections of approximately 98 percent of its transmission infrastructure in high-fire threat areas.
This includes approximately 50,000 electric transmission structures, 700,000 distribution poles and 222 substations, covering more than 5,500 miles of transmission line and 25,200 miles of distribution line.
In the course of inspection, the company identified 53,000 corrective actions needed on transmission structures, with 100 found to be high priority. PG&E said all necessary high priority repairs have been addressed.
Another 207,000 corrective actions on distribution poles with nearly 1,000 conditions identified as highest priority were found with 97 percent of those highest-priority conditions repaired or made safe. The remaining high priority conditions are currently in the process of being repaired.
There also are 3,000 corrective actions within substations with approximately 100 conditions identified as highest priority. PG&E said all of those highest-priority conditions have been repaired or made safe.
“The number of safety risks found through these inspections is unacceptable. We need to do better,” Sumeet Singh, PG&E’s vice president of the Community Wildfire Safety Program, told reporters on Wednesday.
When Lake County News asked about specific findings for Lake County, PG&E said that information is not yet available.
However, PG&E said it has provided results of the enhanced and accelerated inspections to the California Public Utilities Commission and will be making the status of the high-priority repairs, organized by city and county, publicly available on its Web site on or before July 15.
Throughout the inspection process, PG&E said it has been addressing and repairing conditions that pose an immediate safety risk, while completing other high-priority repairs on an accelerated basis. Repairs for all other conditions are scheduled to be completed as part of PG&E’s work execution plan.
They’ve brought in 2,000 qualified line workers from out of state and implemented best practices from agencies in Southern California as well as Australia, Singh said.
PG&E also has permanently deenergized the Caribou-Palermo transmission line, which Cal Fire identified as an ignition point of the Camp fire. Singh said the line has been out of service since
December.
During its inspections, PG&E identified a significant number of high-priority conditions on the Caribou-Palermo line, Singh said.
At the request of the California Public Utilities Commission, PG&E retained Exponent, an independent third-party scientific and engineering consulting firm, to conduct a records-based review of the transmission line. PG&E expects that Exponent will conclude its review over the next couple of months.
During the WSIP repair work, PG&E also identified several high-priority issues on one section of the Ignacio-Alto-Sausalito transmission line that runs through areas of the Golden Gate National
Recreation Area and serves the city of Sausalito.
Ten of the line’s 11 towers in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area with high-priority conditions will require complete replacement. PG&E has commenced preparations for repair work, which will require the construction of a temporary transmission line to provide electric service while the towers on the permanent transmission line are replaced and repaired.
PG&E is in the process of assessing additional structures on the line to determine if additional corrective actions are needed.
Inspectors looked at all aspects of PG&E assets including cross-arms, insulators and footings, along with critical electrical components and equipment. PG&E and contract crews inspected electric towers and poles from top to bottom through ground, climbing, helicopter or drone inspections.
Inspection findings were documented, particularly through high resolution images, and reviewed by dedicated teams with experience in system maintenance, engineering and maintenance
planning to evaluate identified conditions.
This process included reviewing millions of high-definition photographs taken from the ground, qualified personnel climbing towers, drones and helicopters, PG&E reported.
PG&E said photographs were evaluated by experts who rate the severity of the condition found, assign a priority level and begin the process of dispatching corrective notifications for repair.
PG&E reports on enhanced safety inspections, electric infrastructure repair
- Lake County News reports
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