August 19, 2023 - The Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC) reports on August 15th, PG&E provided its monthly update to regulators on the number and causes of EPSS outages for the month of July 2023. PG&E’s EPSS program is intended to reduce wildfire risk by automatically turning off power when a hazard, like a tree branch or animal, comes into contact with the powerline and could spark a fire. RCRC has worked extensively with stakeholders to encourage the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety to scrutinize utility fast-trip outages. In particular, RCRC has insisted that PG&E perform system hardening and infrastructure improvements to reduce the risk, number, frequency, and duration of their Enhanced Powerline Safety Settings (EPSS) program outages.
In 2022, there were approximately 2,400 EPSS outages throughout PG&E’s service territory, which was a significant increase from the roughly 600 outages that occurred when EPSS was introduced as a pilot program in 2021. PG&E recently indicated that it will replace its wildfire prevention Enhanced Vegetation Management efforts, instead relying more upon EPSS and their 10,000-mile undergrounding to reduce the risk of future utility-caused wildfires. PG&E anticipates a roughly 2% decline in the number of EPSS outages year over year going forward.
Although the number of year-to-date outages declined from 972 in 2022 to 731 so far this year, the number of outages in the month of July jumped from 383 in 2022 to 493 in the month of July. Last year, 171 circuits experienced five or more EPSS outages, with eight circuits seeing 15 or more outages from January through October. So far this year, 26 circuits have experienced at least five outages, seven have had seven or more outages, and a circuit in rural Kern County, for example has already seen 12 EPSS outages (eight of which occurred in the month of June). Last month, 21 circuits saw four or more EPSS outages with one area experiencing 7 outages). So far in 2023, 40% of the EPSS outages have had unknown causes, 15% were caused by equipment failure, 14% were caused by animal contact, and 12% were caused by vegetation contact.
While RCRC appreciates and supports PG&E’s efforts to reduce wildfire risk across its system, loss of power poses a significant danger to public health and safety and such preventative measures must be accompanied by efforts to improve energy reliability in impacted areas.
ABOUT RURAL COUNTY REPRESENTATIVES OF CALIFORNIA (RCRC)
The Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC) is a thirty-seven member county strong service organization that champions policies on behalf of California’s rural counties. RCRC is dedicated to representing the collective unique interests of its membership, providing legislative and regulatory representation at the State and Federal levels, and providing responsible services for its members to enhance and protect the quality of life in rural California counties. To learn more about RCRC, visit rcrcnet.org and follow @RuralCounties on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
