NORTH SHORE >> Pacific Gas & Electric presented a podcast for its North Shore service area to provide the latest data on wildfire prevention, safety tips and how utility customers can access discounts on August 26.
PG&E’s David Canny, regional vice president, informed listeners the company is serving 500,000 electric customers, 400,000 gas customers with innovation to increase capacity. “This is part of our commitment for additional customers to connect to the electrical grid using a combination of traditional power lines and insulation battery packs, to go live next year,” Canny said.
In Lake County, PG&E is now busy undergrounding overhead power lines in two locations in Clearlake Oaks. Work started in May and is expected to be done by October. “In 2024 we forecast completion of 32 miles of undergrounding in Lake County, with an additional 34 miles of undergrounding in 2025 and 2026,” he said. In Ukiah there are electric transmission powerline rebuilds.,” he added. “This August we finished work on a four-mile double circuit, such as a lattice tower with a circuit on each side to enhance capacity and reliability. From October to November, we’ll remove one line no longer needed, reducing wildfire risk.”
One thing on many peoples’ mind is the rising cost of their energy bill. Canny assured customers that the company is dedicated to stabilizing bills. They are acting to limit annual increases to no more than three percent through 2026 and adopted an initiative to reduce expenses. “We reduced operating costs by one half billion and we’re working with policy makers to securitize our vegetation management costs and spread the expense over a longer period of time. In July
PG&E temporarily reduced rates by 9%.
But the biggest challenge this year is the very active wildfire season. “Cal Fire reports over 5,000 wildfires across California and over 800,000 acres have burned,” he said. “That’s more than 7,000 acres than at the same time last year and more than 700,000 acres than last year. Also, firefighting efforts are deploying helicopters with water tank systems across Lake County, made available to Napa and Marin and helped suppression of the Park Fire, affecting 429,603 acres, impacting Butte, Plumas, Shasta and Tehama where the Park Fire is now 82% contained.
Canny noted some areas face outage reliability challenges, but more robust reviews help ameliorate statistics. He also reminded customers about the Relief for Energy Assistance through Community Help or through the REACH program, providing up to $2,000 per qualifying household. PG&E contributed through an energy fund to achieve significant expansion of REACH in 2024. It offers bill support for households past due on energy bills, focused on summer peak usage. “PG&E provided $17 million for 25,000 customers since January,” he said. “Savings options and rebates are available for customers who reduce usage and extended to those who are at 200% of federal poverty guidelines and to apply online: pge.com/reach. And the California Alternative Rates for Energy (CARE) provides monthly discounts of 20% or more; if families enroll at, pge.com/care.
The budget billing program is designed to avoid spikes in billing during summer and winter months. It works by averaging energy costs over the prior 12 months to determine a customer’s monthly payment. “If your average energy costs change significantly then we can adjust your monthly billing payment every four months,” Canny said. To be eligible a customer must be paid in full. One can enroll at pge.com/budgetbilling. There is also the Go Green Home, an energy financing program administered by the state of California while supported by PG & E and other utilities. It helps homeowners and renters with energy upgrades, outdated appliances, lighting, windows and other home infrastructure.
Austin Sharp, PG&E, North Bay regional manager, noted overlaying protective measures saves money in the long run. “We’ve installed stronger poles for powerlines and issuing power outage alerts,” he said. “During dangerous conditions we use weather reports, high- definition cameras, drones and artificial intelligence to respond.” He noted there is the Enhanced Powerline Safety Settings (EPSS), implemented n 2021 addressing increased wildfire risk. “One key benefit is the ability to turn off power within 1/10th of a second when a tree branch is detected contacting a power line,” he said. “Last year there was a 72% reduction of hazardous risk contact with EPSS. And last year we improved energy reliability by installing wildlife guards to keep them away from powerlines and improved electric delivery.” It also helps to track a location of outages faster. The aim is to eventually install 10,000 of the sensors.
A proactive tool PG & E relies upon the Public Safety Power Shutoff system. This tool is used only when weather is so severe it threatens people and property’s safety, where power is suspended during a hazardous weather event. This year only two PSPS events impacted 194 customers. Reducing wildfire risk even more is PG&E’s vegetation management programs by hauling off dry brush, branches and even large size material by customer request. “The goal of undergrounding is to bury 10,000 miles of powerlines across the entire service area yet that will require the next 10 years to complete” Sharp noted.
