Despite wild fires, California regulators NIX update fire cards 2017

From Malena CaroloCalmness

This story was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

Weeks after deadly fires passed through Los Angeles County, the state regulator responsible for utility supervisory companies declined a request that would require the largest utility services in California to update cards showing high -fire threat areas.

Consumer defenders have argued for more up-to-date cards that could help evaluate the risk for communities and impose more stringent requirements for utility infrastructure in high-threat areas.
The maps show the risk of fire caused by equipment owned by the three main utilities owned by the state; They are separate from Cal Fire cards showing The potential for fires based on fuel in an area. Originally filed eight years ago, the cards were not updated as a whole. Instead, utilities voluntarily submit parts updates to mark the areas as a fire risk or are no longer at risk as they determine this with internal models.

Even with these additions, the cards need poorly, according to Cal defenders, who represents payment for the California Commission for Utilities.

The agency’s proposal would require immediately updated cards and a further update period. Originally filed in 2023 by the California Public Lawyer Service, a state entity, charged with presenting consumer interests, it had support from the three major energy companies – Pacific Gas & Electric, South California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric. But at the end of January, the committee voted against the proposal with four commissioners in opposition and one who had previously led mud defenders who withdrawn.

“CPUC is focused on monitoring the observance of communal services with numerous rules and programs that guide their activities in areas for the threat of fire in California,” said Adam Cranfil, a spokesman for the committee. “Today we cannot comment on a potentially future vehicle for fire cards.”

While investigators are considering the reasons for the latest fires in Los Angeles County, South California Edison, which serves the area, is undergoing increased control. The utility is said in a regulatory submission of this His equipment may have played a role at the start of 799-Akra Hearst Fire in the San Fernando Valley and The company is investigating whether his equipment could have been involved in 14,021 acre fire on Ethan This burned the Altada and parts of Pasadena.

Edison’s spokesman in southern California Gabriela Ornellas declined to answer specific questions about utility fire cards and whether the updated cards would help prevent or suppress the latter fires or his answer. In a statement read over the phone, she said the company internally reviewed the risk of fire in the service area using many factors.

“If this analysis determines that changes to CPUC cards are justified, SCE will submit a petition to change the CPUC card,” she said.

The committee’s risk risk cards arose from a regulatory response to a series of fires at the end of 2007 in southern California, several of which were attributed to utilities. As a result, Pacific Gas & Electric, South California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric, which serve the vast majority of state, submitted cards in 2017 to identify potential areas where utilities could cause fires.

The three utilities are required to update their cards every 10 years, but both Pacific Gas & Electric and Edison California Edison have updated sections of their cards after the initial submission. Currently, Southern California Edison also wants approval to update some of its cards. San Diego Gas & Electric has not updated its cards since 2017

But Cal’s defenders claimed in their original proposal in 2023 that the cards needed both full update and being updated more than once a decade. When Pacific Gas & Electric submitted an update in 2023, for example, new inclusions amount to about 4.5% of its service area.

“Even his most latest mapping was in a sharp need for updating.”

The California Public Advocate in 2023 of the PG & Fire Cards Updated the same year

“Even his last mapping was in a sharp need for updating,” said Cal lawyers in his request in 2023. “This suggests that public safety needs would be better satisfied if utility services in the country update their mapping risk every five years.”

All three utilities with mapping requirements support the position of CAL lawyers, which would allow utility services to update cards based on their own internal models. In a statement, Pacific Gas & Electric spokesman Mat Nauman said the company updated its internal fire cards annually and expects to submit updated cards with the committee at the end of this year.

Mussey Grade Road Alliance, a Ramona community advocacy group, was repelled back on the proposal in May 2023 because it would give utilities to choose what was considered risky, which later agreed to Cal.

With the mapping, there is additional regulatory control, as well as more stringent requirements for verification and maintenance of utility infrastructure in high-risk areas.

Joseph Mitchell of the advocacy group said the cards do not have enough modeling about how the wind affects fires. The average value of the annual wind in a given area does not represent the short -term, significant gusts that have been associated with large fires, both recently and in the last decade.

San Diego Gas & Electric is coming close to reporting, he said.

Alex Welling, a spokesman for San Diego Gas & Electric, said usefulness regularly compares his cards to “wind speeds, historical fire data, fire modeling and more.” The utility will submit a card update file if “identifies the need for updates,” Welling said.

“Determining the most dangerous zones for appropriate mitigation is important and it continues to be important,” Mitchell said.

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.