NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 26

Wildfire by Michele Steinberg

THE VIEW
FROM NFPA'S
WILDFIRE DIVISION

Power Off
HOW RECENT DELIBERATE POWER OUTAGES IN CALIFORNIA RAISE LARGER QUESTIONS
ABOUT WILDFIRE PLANNING, PREPARATION, AND RESILIENCY

s I write, autumn wildfires

reduce fire risk. According to the Santa
are raging throughout
Cruz Sentinel, the utility has buried
California. While these
10,000 miles of power lines, replaced
destructive events are
thousands of wooden poles with steel
nothing new, there is an
structures, insulated power lines, and
unusual wrinkle this year-deliberate
installed more than 100 fire-spotting
large-scale power outages.
cameras on mountaintops. While SDG&E
Citing strong winds and dry conditions,
occasionally cuts power to customers as a
utility giant Pacific Gas & Electric shut
fire precaution during extreme weather,
off power to 800,000 customers for sevthe company has over time sectionalized
eral days in October to prevent sparking
its power grid, allowing it to be more
power lines from igniting dry vegetation.
surgical in its actions-cutting power
PG&E had good reason for concern: it
for just a few dozen homes in the most
had been found responsible for sparking
dangerous areas rather than subjecting
Was the extreme
16 wildfires in 2017 alone. However, the
thousands to a blackout. As a result,
action of cutting
realities of the plan, officially dubbed
SDG&E cut power to fewer than 2 perelectricity to
"Public Safety Power Shutoff," took most
cent of its customers during the October
800,000 customers
California residents and business owners
windstorms, while about 15 percent of
by surprise, and left many of us looking
PG&E customers had the lights intenin California really
on from afar dumbfounded. Was this
tionally turned off, according to reports.
necessary?
extreme action really necessary?
The contrast between what happened
Shutting off power to an estimated
in San Diego versus the rest of California
2.5 million people for days at a time
shows the obvious benefits of long-term
wasn't merely inconvenient, but was
planning and preparation. It also serves
also life-threatening. One person died after power was cut as a reminder for all of us to take a hard look at our own home
to the oxygen machine he needed to survive (a coroner later and business disaster plans. Having a plan before the lights go
ruled, however, that the death was unrelated to the shut off ). out and before the fire is approaching is the first step toward
The food aid organization Meals on Wheels also reported that resiliency for individuals, communities, and governments. On
its operations were hampered by the outages, and expressed the regional level, policymakers must prioritize the reliability
concern that the loss of power could endanger vulnerable of our nation's aging infrastructure and hold companies and
seniors. The outages left other residents in the region fright- regulatory agencies accountable for investing in the safety of
ened, frustrated, and angry.
customers and constituents.
While it's too early to know whether the electricity shutoff
While there is clearly much work to be done at PG&E, the
had any impact on preventing wildfires, what the move did utility is taking steps in the right direction. After the 2017
reveal is the woeful lack of investment and preparation over fire season, PG&E initiated a broad-ranging wildfire safety
the years by PG&E and state regulators. But if they want an program and has vowed to make much-needed investments,
example of what good planning and investment looks like, such as burying some of its power lines.
they don't have to look very far.
As we've seen time and again, being late to plan and invest in
In 2007, a firestorm called the Witch Fire killed 10 people, safety can have devastating consequences. For PG&E, though,
injured nearly 100, and caused more than $1 billion in damage the old adage appears to apply: better late than never.
in San Diego. In the decade that followed, the local utility, San
Diego Gas & Electric, invested in modernizing its power grid to MICHELE STEINBERG is director of the wildfire division at NFPA.

26 | NFPA JOURNAL * J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0

MICHAEL HOEWELER

NFPA Journal - January/February 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - January/February 2020