PG&E Hits Major Undergrounding Milestone, Burying More Than 800 Miles of Lines in High Wildfire Risk Areas Investing.com
Customers In 27 States Now Benefiting From New Underground Installations
Electrical cables which improves Reliability and Eliminates Almost All Wildfire Hazards in a Given Area
This comes on the heels of PG&E to complete more than 360 miles underground by 2023, representing the most underground installations completed in one year by the company. Customers in 27 counties are now served by these buried lines, permanently reducing 98% of wildfire risk in those areas and delivering significant improvements in reliability.
“Underground power lines are an important layer of protection in our strategy to reduce wildfire risk and improve reliability for our customers,” it said.
PG&E remains committed to undergrounding high-risk areas as part of its wildfire mitigation efforts because undergrounding is the most effective solution to permanently reduce wildfire risk, improve reliability and reduce long-term operating costs.
Subsidiary Progress and Long-Term Plans
Starting this week, PG&E has completed more than 187 miles of work toward the company’s goal of 250 miles of underground travel by 2024. In the past weeks, customers
PG&E plans to complete another 330 miles underground by 2025 and another 440 miles by 2026. This work will be directed at areas at high risk of wildfire in the company’s service area and will deliver PG&E a total of over 1,600 kilometers of total underground completed in all 30 states in the North and
Updates on the company’s undergrounding progress are shared monthly at pge.com/undergrounding. Customers and stakeholders can view an interactive map that highlights where they all are PG&E wildfire safety work, including underground clearance and forecasting, is available by visiting pge.com/progressmap.
Determining the lines with the highest risk of undergrounding, PG&E uses a risk model based on machine learning. That includes advanced fire spread technology, which was developed by a company called Technosylva and is also in use
For underground applications in 2027 and beyond, PG&E will evaluate additional projects in high fire risk areas. Priority is given to the most dangerous circuits. Details of long-term plans will be shared PG&E’s The 10-Year Plan for Electric Undergrounding will be installed in 2025.
PG&E’s layers of protection, including underground, have significantly reduced the risk of wildfire throughout its service area, resulting in no catastrophic fire from the company’s equipment by 2023 and a significant reduction in the risk of wildfire since 2018.
Additional layers of wildfire protection include:
- Reinforcing the electrical system with strong poles and closed electrical cables in high fire risk areas.
- Using Enhanced Power Line Safety Settings (EPSS) to reduce ignition and provide wildfire protection to 44,000 line miles and all 1.8 million customers living in high fire risk areas. By 2023, there was a 72% reduction in CPUC-reported fires on EPSS-enabled lines in High Fire Risk Regions (compared to the 2018-2020 average).
- Continuing to mitigate the impact of the Public Safety Shutdown, which remains a top priority for the company.
- Handling trees and other vegetation near power lines that can cause power outages and/or fires.
- Using a network of more than 1,500 weather stations, or one station every 18 miles, to better predict and respond to severe weather threats.
- 600 high-definition cameras are used, providing the ability to see more than 90% of high-risk fire areas.
- Investing in advanced tools and technologies such as artificial intelligence and drones that facilitate automatic fire detection and response.
Media note: B-roll video is available upon request.
About PG&E
Pacific Gas and Electric Companya subsidiary of Company PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is an integrated electric utility that serves more than 16 million people in 70,000 square miles in the North and
