HomeMy WebLinkAbout090523-05.1 PGE RESPONSE TO TOWN
Email Response
To: jcalabrigo@danville.ca.gov
Subject: Following up on the Town of Danville’s recent outages
Body:
Dear Joseph Calabrigo,
I would like to thank you for reaching out to us about recent outages in the Town of Danville. As PG&E’s
Vice President of the Bay Area, I understand the impact that outages have on our customers’ lives and
the community you serve. I want to apologize for your cons?tuents’ experience. Any ?me without
power is disrup?ve, and our recent reliability performance did not meet your or our expecta?ons.
Our top priority is providing safe and reliable power. To keep our customers and communi?es safe amid
the con?nued and growing threat of wildfire, we use enhanced safety se?ngs on our powerlines known
as Enhanced Powerline Safety Se?ngs (EPSS). One of the key features of EPSS is to automa?cally turn
off power within one-tenth of a second if there is a wildfire hazard, like a tree branch striking a
powerline. Quickly turning off power when there is trouble helps prevent igni?ons that can start a
wildfire. Last year, there was a 68% reduc?on in CPUC-reportable igni?ons on EPSS-enabled lines in High
Fire-Threat Districts compared to the weather-normalized 2018-2020 average.
We review outages on EPSS-enabled lines daily and those reviews have resulted in us taking steps to
reduce outages and improve reliability in your community. Our completed work has included:
Installing fault indicators to safely restore power more quickly.
Replacing two pieces of overhead equipment.
Replacing .5 miles of underground equipment.
We also have plans to replace another piece of overhead equipment and trim trees to help prevent
future vegeta?on-caused outages.
Recent work to repair equipment and improve reliability has unfortunately resulted in more customers
temporarily experiencing outages. While our team has been replacing damaged underground cables and
overhead equipment and repairing reclosers in the communi?es of Danville and Alamo, some customers
have been temporarily transferred to a different set of above ground EPSS-capable powerlines. This
temporary solu?on is needed for us to safely conduct work, but it has resulted in more customers being
impacted when an outage occurred. While these se?ngs help keep communi?es safe when wildfire risk
is high, we know unexpected power outages are frustra?ng. Our work in the area will be completed in
the next 30 days and customers should experience improved electric reliability.
Thank you again for taking the ?me to voice the concerns of your cons?tuents and for invi?ng us to your
Town Council mee?ng today. My colleague Sarah Yoell, PG&E Bay Area Government Rela?ons Manager,
and I will be a?ending to answer any addi?onal ques?ons.
On behalf of PG&E, I want to sincerely apologize for the frequent outages the community has
experienced. With our con?nued efforts and the support of your community, I know we can keep the
power on, without sacrificing safety.
Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any further ques?ons or concerns.
Sincerely,
Aaron Johnson
Bay Area Region Vice President
Pacific Gas and Electric Company
415-271-9874
Aaron.Johnson@pge.com