On Thursday, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) directed Pacific Gas & Electric company (PG&E) to comply with additional requirements during Public Safety Power Shut-offs (PSPS) when utilizing tree overstrike exposure criteria when determining whether to proactively de-energize power lines including additional noticing, public safety partner coordination, reporting, and assessment of additional emergency resource deployment. Tree overstrike exposure is vegetation and/or hazard trees that may strike electric distribution lines during extreme weather events (such as windstorms). PG&E has identified 5.3 million trees across 25,000 distribution miles that fits that criteria which is estimated to increase the scope, duration and frequency of PSPS events as much as threefold in rural communities. At the request of RCRC, the CPUC will require PG&E to include tree overstrike information in future PSPS pre-season reports and the CPUC will hold a future workshop to report on how tree overstrike criteria impacted PG&E’s PSPS decision-making. RCRC’s letter in full can be viewed here.
