Pacific Gas & Electric Company representatives presented community wildfire safety plans before the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
The meeting included new data from the California Public Utility Commission breaking down the county’s risk of wildfire. According to the data, tw0-thirds of El Dorado County are under elevated or extreme risk for fire. One-third of PG&E’s power lines are in high fire-threat areas.
The safety plans also come with recommendations to reduce the risk of wildfires.
Among the proposed changes for El Dorado County:
- 211 miles of vegetation management in areas with high potential for wildfire;
- 31 miles of stronger or covered poles, or moving lines underground;
- Installing 17 sectionalizing devices to split the power grid into smaller pieces, to create more flexibility in which areas are impacted by a public safety power shut-off.
“There’s always opportunities for us to be doing better,” said Sarah Rasheed, government relations representative for PG&E at the meeting.
“There are internal changes happening that are real,” added Mike Webb, PG&E public safety specialist. “It is happening right now, but we are talking about 100,000 miles of power lines, and that’s a big ship to turn, and we are trying to pivot like everyone else with changing wildfire conditions.”
KCRA 3 spoke with El Dorado County residents who expressed concern over PG&E’s prior handling of wildfires that sparked in earlier years.
“With their track record of the most recent years, and how often they turn off our power for that, it’s not surprising at all,” said Carley Fowler of Placerville.
“We’ve lost a lot of lives in California,” said Randy Rendig of Camino. “[PG&E] needs to direct funds into upgrading their system than upper management salaries.”
https://www.kcra.com/article/pge-reps-wildfire-safety-plans-el-dorado-county/37083694