PG&E aims to keep the power on with weather stations

In recent years, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) has been held at fault in several major fire disasters in northern California – the 2015 Butte fire, the 2017 Nuns and possibly Tubbs fire, the 2019 Camp fire, the 2020 Zogg fire in Shasta County and perhaps others. Lawsuits and a plethora of bad publicity have been well documented, forcing the utility giant to take additional measures to combat future disasters – some put in place as mitigation in legal decisions, and some pro-active to increase what they call “situational awareness.”

They call their efforts the CWSP, Community Wildlife Safety Program, a comprehensive project that includes emergency response protocol, critical infrastructure maintenance, weather monitoring and high-definition cameras to keep an “eye in the sky” approach to the widespread high fire risk areas they serve.

Locally, the latest step is a new weather station placed on a hill above Oak Mesa Drive in Oakmont, where the view of upper Sonoma Valley is incidental to the station’s purpose – gathering microclimate data to help PG&E meteorologists evaluate where severe weather may be headed and inform utility operational planning. A weathervane, thermometer and other sensors route their data to a small white box, stationed half-way up a transmission tower that is linked to a larger network to keep PG&E dialed in to local conditions.

It’s only one of more than 200 new weather stations that have been installed this year alone, 15 of which were placed in Sonoma County, for a total of 73 locally. PG&E plans to have 1,300 in place by the end of 2021, one weather station for every 20 line-miles of electric distribution circuits within high fire-threat areas.

Such intensive data harvesting is key as PG&E attempts to limit the scope and range of the Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS), keeping them smaller and shorter, unlike the widespread and lengthy “blackouts” Sonoma County experienced in 2018. Such “proactive de-energization” shuts down power transmission through areas where dry conditions and high winds create the right climate for a tree or other objects to touch a high-power line, or where the line itself might fall.

“We will continue to improve our Public Safety Power Shutoff program to reduce the number of customers affected and the amount of time those customers will be without power,” said Deanna Contreras, PG&E’s media representative for the North Bay.

The CWSP efforts also include the installation of hundreds of “sectionalizing” devices and switches to make the grid more flexible during outages by breaking it into smaller pieces, and hardening hundreds of miles of infrastructure to reduce wildfire risk – in an effort to lessen the effects of PSPS events on customers.

“The grid just wasn’t meant to be turned off,” said Contreras. “With the sectionalization we’re able to shut off sections of lines, instead of the entire line.”

A similar network of remote sensing devices – in this case, video cameras – keeps an almost-literal eye on the landscape of the North Bay where fire danger is high. PG&E has 135 high-definition cameras in high fire-threat areas and is installing more with a goal of 600 total by the end of 2022. The cameras are part of the ALERTWildfire system used by the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, Cal Fire and local fire departments in four states.

And just this week, PG&E previewed a new “micro-grid” system powered by a linear generator, using a new technology that generates power with less carbon than the diesel-powered gas generators use in emergencies.

“The Angwin microgrid, one of PG&E’s first, can supply power to about 54 customers that include a fire station, a market, a medical site and a student housing building at Pacific Union College,” according to reporting in the Press Democrat. “The power requirement, between 200 and 250 kilowatts, is supplied by a 500-kilowatt diesel generator.”

The purpose of such microgrids is to keep power supplied to hyperlocal areas despite any widespread power shutoff, whether intentional or not.

“We know that losing power disrupts lives, especially for our customers with medical needs. That is why we are finding ways to reduce the impact of PSPS events without compromising safety,” said Mark Quinlan, vice president of PSPS Operations and Execution.

“The sole focus of a PSPS is to keep our customers safe,” said Quinlan.

Reach Christian Kallen at christian.kallen@sonomanews.com.