PG&E doesn’t like the pole attachment terms Crown Castle was granted by the California Public Utilities Commission, and is asking for a do-over. At its recent meeting, commissioners unanimously approved contract terms decided by a CPUC administrative law judge who was acting as an arbitrator in a dispute between the two companies.
It’s more than just a simple contract dispute, though. Pole route management policy is getting a hard look by the CPUC and by federal courts that are dealing with PG&E’s bankruptcy filing and criminal probation in the wake of deadly fires sparked by overhead lines. PG&E argues that piecemeal decision making will only make things worse.
Crown Castle wanted to attach fiber optic cables to PG&E’s poles, and buy the necessary space instead of leasing it, as PG&E prefers when a company only wants to occupy one vertical foot of pole space. It claimed that being able to buy the space gives it comparable privileges to big incumbents, such as AT&T, that typically buy all of the pole space available – the communications zone – and then manage attachments for all telecoms users.
The ALJ, Patricia Miles, ruled that PG&E didn’t have to sell space but, in a baseball-style arbitration decision, imposed lease terms that mimic many of the advantages of ownership that Crown Castle sought. Acting unusually quickly, the commission gave her decision a final blessing ten days later.
Both the speed and the substance of the CPUC’s action didn’t sit well with PG&E, which filed a request for a rehearing on Friday. Many of its objections revolve around what it regards as conflicts with the CPUC’s basic rules for managing pole attachments by telecoms companies and other issues involving the use of the public right of way by utilities, which were laid down in a 1998 decision.
Those rules are being reexamined in excruciating detail in a separate CPUC proceeding involving all of California’s major electric and telecoms companies, and many smaller ones. PG&E told the commission that this is a bad time to make decisions on the fly…
In the current environment of the ‘new-normal’ and the imperative to maintain the safety of PG&Es infrastructure these increased and expedited access and attachment terms are imprudent. Such increased access affects safety, which is a concern of the public, the CPUC, and both electric and telecom utilities. All parties need time for full exploration of requirements and risks that would be the outcome of such changes.
Pole route safety is a complicated, high stakes issue in California right now. After two years of massive wildfires started by overhead electric lines that killed dozens of people and caused billions of dollars of damage, everything is on the table, including a possible state takeover of electric utilities. At the same time, fiber construction is accelerating to support upgrades of residential, commercial and mobile broadband service. Speed matters for both, but optimal decisions for either often run in opposite directions. Ad hoc tinkering, like the PG&E/Crown Castle decision, will make the problem worse. The better course is for the CPUC to focus its resources on the bigger proceeding and wrap it up in a timely manner.
Collected documents from the Crown Castle/PG&E pole attachment arbitration at the CPUC are here.
Conduit, right of way, pole attachment, dark fiber and franchise agreement documents are here.