Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) on Friday released its 2022 Wildfire Mitigation Plan (WMP) with plans to underground at least 175 miles of powerlines in high fire-risk areas in 2022.
According to a release, PG&E plans to accelerate its undergrounding work to complete approximately 3,600 miles by 2026, or roughly one-third of its overall 10,000-mile undergrounding program announced last summer.
Apart from reducing wildfire risk, undergrounding cuts down the need for trimming and removing trees. This, in turn, preserves the natural environment and reduces the costs of vegetation management work over time.
The company will also expand its Enhanced Powerline Safety Settings program this year to reduce the risk of ignitions from its electric equipment in the short term. It will also improve Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS), situational awareness and forecasting, and vegetation management.
“PG&E has taken a stand that catastrophic wildfires shall stop, and our Wildfire Mitigation Plan for 2022 details the work we are doing right now to make that stand a reality. Undergrounding powerlines and expanding Enhanced Powerline Safety Settings represent the best mix of long- and near-term solutions to make it safer every day for our hometowns while keeping our customers’ energy costs and bills as low as possible,” said PG&E Corporation CEO Patti Poppe.
In addition to undergrounding work as part of PG&E’s long-term solution, the company will also
enhance grid design and system hardening (installing stronger poles and covered lines, making at least four additional temporary distribution microgrids operationally ready, and operating two new remote grids). Moreover, as part of this year’s asset management and inspections, PG&E plans to complete inspections of transmission and distribution structures in extreme fire-threat areas, including more than 390,000 distribution poles and nearly 39,000 transmission structures.
Keeping Customers and Stakeholders Informed
PG&E’s WMP is subject to review by the state’s Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety. In parallel, the CPUC’s open, transparent, and public review of PG&E’s 2023 GRC proposal includes public participation hearings across the service area, scheduled in March, as well as evidentiary hearings where PG&E and all interested parties testify in a public proceeding. The CPUC then issues a final decision authorizing the amounts PG&E collects from its customers.
About PG&E
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation, is a combined natural gas and electric utility serving more than 16 million people across 70,000 square miles in Northern and Central California.
