The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday blasted PG&E amid the utility’s Public Safety Power Shutoff, which has affected more than 700,000 customers throughout the state since Wednesday.
During the commission’s regular meeting at its San Francisco office, CPUC President Marybel Batjer called the way PG&E has been managing the PSPS “unacceptable.”
“I understand the impact these events have on every Californian and deeply share the public’s concern regarding this current PSPS process,” Batjer said.
“The management and response of the company PG&E to the events, to the PSPS, have been absolutely unacceptable. The impact to the communities, the individual people, to the commerce of our state, the safety of our
people, has been less than exemplary. This cannot be the new normal. We can’t accept it as the new normal and we won’t.”
PG&E’s shutoffs began Wednesday, prompted by windy and dry weather in Northern California, impacting residents in 34 counties throughout the state.
According to the CPUC’s deputy executive director of safety and enforcement policy Elizaveta Malashenko, she and other state officials have been posted at PG&E’s Wildfire Safety Operations Center in San Francisco, closely monitoring the situation.
“Our concern is for public safety and do everything we can to minimize the impacts of these very serious events,” Malashenko said.
“Some of the issues that have come up are the coordination between PG&E and counties and local government. There have been a lot of challenges in how that’s been working. We’ve been doing what we can to monitor what’s happening, suggest recommendations on how to adjust the process as the events unfold, and also assisting with the dissemination of information,” she said.
In particular, she said, the CPUC has been working with PG&E to make sure that vulnerable customers, like the disabled and elderly, have been properly notified about the shutoff via telephone or physical visits to their residences.
“An emergent issue that we’ve also been monitoring very closely was the loss of the website’s capabilities,” she said, referring to problems many customers faced Tuesday and Wednesday as they tried to find information on the company’s website.
“This was a major concern for everyone engaged in this event,” Malashenko said.
She said that PG&E had 45 helicopters on hand watching for overhead conditions and more than 6,000 crewmembers ready to restore power when the dry and windy weather conditions died down.
Cal Fire has also been monitoring the situation and had already responded to over 200 ignitions throughout the state within the last two days, she said.
“We’ve done a phenomenal job of putting out those fires and keeping the communities out of harm’s way,” Malashenko said.
Ultimately, she said, “It’s a PG&E event so they are the ones who have the responsibility of communicating with the counties. So we can offer suggestions and fill in some of the gaps.”
Following the meeting, Mindy Spatt, spokesowman for The Utility Reform Network, which advocates for utilities customers, said that organization members were “up in arms” over the shutoffs.
“They feel the message they’re getting from PG&E is that PG&E remains unable to trim trees or inspect its lines, so this is the only option to prevent PG&E from starting more fires. This is obviously not a good solution,” Spatt said.
“Yes, consumers would rather have their power shut off than have their homes and businesses burn down, but they would really rather have is a utility that can operate safely and it’s clear that we don’t have that,” she
said.
The PUC has been in PG&E’s pocket for decades, as have most of our elected officials. We need a non-profit, PUBLIC utilities company supplying our energy needs.
Steve Glazer: can you hear me now?
“Yes, consumers would rather have their power shut off than have their homes and businesses burn down, but they would really rather have is a utility that can operate safely and it’s clear that we don’t have that,” she
said.
Thank you Mindy
Consumers want a public utility with the superior performance demonstrated by BART and the DMV.
Sarcasm is entertaining!
I get that PG&E, our elected officials, and the PUC are all in cahoots and are in the game for their own gain. What I’m loving is all this righteous indignation about turning the power off. PG&E said a year ago that this was what was going to happen. Didn’t these people believe them or were the PUC and all these government bodies thinking ‘PG&E is punking us, they won’t really turn the power off’? What a bunch of idgits we’ve put in office. it doesn’t get better than reality, you just can’t make this stuff up.
The power shut offs will continue until there is an agreement not to sue.
PG&E needs the shut downs because they know how little maintenance they have done over the last 25 years and don’t want to risk another fire from untrimmed trees.
Such a joke the finger pointing-they are both worse than two kids doing the finger pointing routine. PGE & the PUC have been in bed with each other for years.
We can’t entirely blame PG&E for this mess. It used to be that there had to be at least 10 feet of clearance from trees. Now it’s only 4 feet. Manage the forests and they won’t burn down so easily.
It is PGE responsibility to decide where to lay the lines and whether to clear underneath, so yes we can entirely blame PGE.
@Local Lady
You are wrong on almost all counts. The only one that you’ve got right is about land management and fires.
There are 2 sets of rules in CA about power lines and vegetation: those set by CPUC under Public Utilities Code and those set in Public Resources Code.
The former is a lot more lenient and requires only 18 inches between power lines and vegetation, and that’s the one that PG&E has been following ever since it’s been adopted in 1997. Before that it was just “reasonable distance” with no specifics.
Public Resources Code is the one that requires 4 feet of clearance for lines carrying 750-2400 volts, with larger clearance for higher voltage. It hasn’t been changed since it’s been adopted back in the 80s.
Following this latter rule would require PG&E to trim a lot more trees, which is why they threw a hissy fit when the judge ordered that as punishment for violating probation in San Bruno explosion they must follow Public Resources Code rather than CPUC rules.
PG&E is playing prevent defense to minimize risk. They’ve already declared bankruptcy and cannot payout more money.If it sinks, the state steps in and takes it over and raises rates to do the maintenance, and keeps the rate increase plus some more, and more….
Where do you people get this nonsense? Have you never heard of Wikipedia, where you can check the very basic facts before posting?
PG&E has been in bankruptcy back in 2001. Remember Enron? Gray Davis recall?
The overall result was that PG&E emerged from the bankruptcy with guaranteed profitability of 11%. And PG&E customers had to pay something like $8 billion in above-market prices from 2003 to 2012. While PG&E kept all money above 11% and then shifted safety funds to bonuses and dividends.
PG&E is not healthy-their stock sunk to 11 something and stayed. It’s
obvious that shutting off wasn’t to protect property owners-it was to save itself from more lawsuits.
There have already been cries to make it a “public” power supplier.
SoCal Edison didn’t shut off when the same conditions moved south, so the PUC didn’t demand it.
Hmmmmmmmm
https://abcnews.go.com/US/fast-moving-wildfire-destroys-homes-forces-overnight-evacuations/story?id=66206830
What a joke! That’s laughable! The CPUC should be held accountable just like PG&E. However, as we all knew, there is ZERO accountability with government and their actions.
>have one private company manage the energy grid for the entire state
>they jack up their rates every month
>they keep filing for bankruptcy yet are somehow able to afford $11 million in exec performance bonuses
>their negligence burned Paradise to the ground and killed 86 people, and if you don’t think they’ll do that again I have a bridge to sell you
>they would rather do rolling blackouts whenever a breeze picks up than do anything about their decades-old rotting infrastructure
>their board members are out partying with their top customers at some winery in Sonoma County while at least two people are dead because they couldn’t power their oxygen machines
>nothing anyone can do about it because, unlike Gray Davis, Californians have zero mechanisms for recalling CEOs or board members from their positions because private companies are only accountable to their shareholders, not the people they’re murdering
Wow, I thank God every day I live in a free-market paradise instead of some kind of socialist hellhole. If only there was a way to turn apologies into an alternative energy source.
I chatted with an elderly gentleman about noon today. He has a sister who lives in a rural area north of Redding. She lost power at 1:00 AM Wednesday, still without power. She was told by PG&E at 11:00 AM today that her power “might” be restored by 11:00 PM on Sunday.
That’s beyond outrageous. Thankfully the lady was proactive and purchased a generator to power her well water. Some of her neighbors were not as fortunate.
I hope you’all think twice about all buying generators in case of another PGE caused disaster like this. Some reasons.
– generators are often noisy especially with one next door.
– generators need to be hooked up properly so as to not be dangerous to yourself and to PGE workers. Putting one outside and running extensions cords is not safe.
– generators need fuel, often gasoline that needs proper storage. Refueling problems can kill you or burn your house down.
– powering up your house does not mean tv, phone or internet will necessarily work. They all depend on other powered up sites.
– generators make a lot of pollution
– suppose your house is up and running. You still need power on in the surrounding area. Consider traffic lights, stores, gas stations, etc.
Ironically an old fashioned phone will work through pretty much any power outage. Get one. It’s a better use of your time to vote to make PGE stop this stupid fooling around than to try to build a moat around your castle with electricity inside.
well, we DID buy a generator in June after a series of outages. It’s nice and quiet, It runs our refrigerator, small chest freezer, TV and DVR, WiFi router, a couple of fans and lamp. It still wasn’t running at full load. It runs efficiently and a gallon of gas lasts for hours so it doesn’t pollute. I’m glad we bought it.
Since we’re not idiots, we refuel it safely. Yes, we have extensions cords, heavy duty ones that aren’t going to melt. And burn. We place them so as to minimize tripping hazards, and since we know they’re there, we’re careful not to trip on them. We have satellite TV, so it’s going to work. If the WiFi goes out, oh well. I cook out side on the grill, and can light the burners on my gas stove as needed. And what does my house having power have to do with other places like gas stations, stores and traffic lights being out? We have food and water, gas stored (safely) for the generator and are prepared.
Buying a generator was an excellent choice for us. I’m glad we bought it. It was great keeping our food cold and frozen foods frozen and being able to watch TV, charge my phone and iPad, and have some lights. I’m glad we have that choice. If you don’t want one, nobody will make you buy one.
@JoJo – We still have our landline home phone. Generally use an electric wireless phone with it, but kept an old corded phone for use in power outages. It worked great during the outage.
I agree with your comments re generators fueled by gas or diesel. But rural folks may have no other option, particularly this that rely on an electric pump to pump well water.
Whole house generators have remarkably improved. Run off natural gas, quiet, look like a bit larger unit than an outside ac fan unit. Local Hein Electric has installed many. If these outages look to continue we will have one installed. For our home electricity use and panel connections, cost prob $10,000. Worth the investment, particularly since we both have gone offices and plan to live in our home until we die. And piece of mind. But that’s just for us.
Not gone offices. Meant home offices.