A federal district court judge overseeing Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s criminal probation gave California's largest utility one week to provide "precise details" on three 2019 fires in its service territory, including one possibly ignited by utility equipment and two potentially sparked by vegetation.
"Specifically, the response shall address the total acreage of the fires caused, the location, the name, the timing, the structures burned, the exact cause of the fires, and any other pertinent details," Judge William Alsup wrote in the Oct. 2 order.
Alsup is presiding over Pacific Gas and Electric's, or PG&E's, probation case in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, which resulted from its six-count felony conviction in 2016 over a 2010 gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno, Calif. As part of the proceeding, the judge has set various probation conditions aimed at preventing "further death and destruction" resulting from wildfires sparked by the utility, including vegetation and asset management requirements.
PG&E and its parent company PG&E Corp. entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January, citing potential liabilities of more than $30 billion from 2017 and 2018 blazes. The utility is in a critical phase of its sprawling restructuring case, in which PG&E is fighting to overcome opposition to its plan of reorganization and courts work to determine its total wildfire liabilities, with a multi-billion-dollar swing to be decided by jury trial in a California state court in January 2020.
Tree-trimming faces personnel shortage
Alsup's order came after PG&E on Oct. 1 responded in a letter to the judge's prior request for information on its preparations for the upcoming high-wind season. During the same period in 2017, gusting winds caused utility power lines to spark a series of devastating fires across Northern California. In the letter, PG&E disclosed that it "may have contributed" to nine fires of 10 acres or more so far in 2019.
"PG&E is continuing to work aggressively to further strengthen its programs and infrastructure to maximize safety and mitigate the potential wildfire risk," the utility said.
PG&E also revealed that, entering high-wind season, it has completed enhanced vegetation work on only about 760 line miles of the 2,455 total miles it plans to cover in 2019. The utility cited the need to "significantly increase the number of qualified personnel" in the effort. "Moreover, until PG&E inspects the lines, the number of trees that require trimming or removal, which is unknown, could impact the rate at which lines can be cleared," it added.
PG&E also expects to increase public safety power shutoffs in 2019, the letter said, noting that a number of preventive blackouts have occurred in recent weeks. On Sept. 24, for instance, PG&E cut power to approximately 48,000 customers across seven counties. The day before, intentional outages affected around 22,000 customers in three counties. The utility said it restored power to all customers less than 24 hours after the potential fire risks passed.
