PGE

San Francisco considers taking over PG&E’s electric business

Sfpuc pge report graphic 13may2019

The City and County of San Francisco is a small step closer to taking over the electric half of Pacific Gas and Electric’s utility operations. A report produced by the City’s local public utilities commission, at the request of mayor London Breed, airs many grievances with PG&E, extolls the benefits of a municipally owned electric utility and glosses over the hard questions of how and how much.

San Francisco’s options, according to the report, range from continuing to arm wrestle with PG&E, to building some limited extensions of existing city-owned electric distribution lines, to simply taking over PG&E assets and operations…

The City can completely remove its reliance on PG&E for local electricity services through purchasing PG&E’s electric delivery assets and maintenance inventories in and near San Francisco, and operating them as a public, not for profit service.

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Electric utilities will decide when to cut power in the face of fire threats

8 May 2019 by Steve Blum
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Californian electric utilities will have clearer guidance on how, if not when, to shut down – de-energise – local power lines when the danger of sparking a wildfire is at its peak. That’s assuming a decision drafted by California Public Utilities Commission president Michael Picker is approved later this month. It’s not the full and final instruction manual, but it’s a start. The new procedures will be in place for this year’s wildfire season and can be improved as time goes on.… More

Utilities shouldn’t bear damage costs alone, California wildfire report recommends

16 April 2019 by Steve Blum
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California governor Gavin Newsom’s wildfire “strike force” published its findings on Friday. The report offers suggestions for preventing, or at least reducing, catastrophic wildfires, and for paying for the damage when they do happen. The short answer is spread the costs around.

One of the central concepts floated by the report is to change California’s strict liability standard, which requires electric and telecoms utilities to pay for all wildfire damages if their equipment is involved in starting a fire, whether or not they did something wrong.… More

Crown Castle won’t have to wait for new PG&E pole attachment terms, CPUC says

12 April 2019 by Steve Blum
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PG&E wants a do-over on a utility pole access decision by the California Public Utilities Commission, but it’ll have to comply with it in the meantime. Wednesday, the CPUC’s executive director refused to delay execution of an arbitrated contract between PG&E and Crown Castle while commissioners decide what they’re going to do with the appeal filed by PG&E last month.

The CPUC’s decision gives PG&E 45 days to approve or deny Crown Castle’s pole attachment requests.… More

Ad hoc decisions will make utility pole safety problems worse, PG&E tells CPUC

25 March 2019 by Steve Blum
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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.… More

Four California counties say “no criminal charges” for PG&E

14 March 2019 by Steve Blum
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Pacific Gas and Electric won’t face criminal charges for its role in starting several northern California fires in 2018. District attorneys in Sonoma, Napa, Humboldt and Lake counties announced that they can’t prove a case. According to a press release from Sonoma County district attorney Jill Ravitch, the necessary evidence burned up along with everything else…

The cases that were referred for prosecution all required proof that PG&E acted with criminal negligence in failing to remove dead and dying trees.

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PG&E faces pole attachment shot clock, as CPUC arbitrator hands Crown Castle a win

6 March 2019 by Steve Blum
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White road attachment

An administrative law judge gave Crown Castle a victory of sorts in a dispute over terms for attaching fiber optic cable to utility poles that Pacific Gas and Electric owns. Assuming the California Public Utilities Commission signs off on the finding, the arbitrated decision by ALJ Patricia Miles leaves PG&E’s leasing model and most of its standard terms in place. But, in effect, it also establishes a 45 day shot clock for responding to attachment requests and allows Crown Castle to do some work on poles without notifying PG&E and to be notified, in some circumstances, if work affecting its cables is planned.… More

PG&E admits responsibility for deadly Camp Fire, pegs liability at $10.5 billion and climbing

1 March 2019 by Steve Blum
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Carr fire 2018

Cal Fire’s official investigation isn’t over, but Pacific Gas and Electric has concluded that it was at least partly to blame for the Camp Fire in Butte County in November, which killed 86 people. In a financial filing yesterday, PG&E laid out the evidence from the transmission tower where the fire began, and the financial consequences…

The company believes it is probable that its equipment will be determined to be an ignition point of the 2018 Camp Fire…

On November 14, 2018, the company observed a broken C-hook attached to the separated suspension insulator that had connected the suspension insulator to a tower arm, along with wear at the connection point.

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Telecoms takes a backseat in Sacramento, but PG&E could end up a hood ornament

25 February 2019 by Steve Blum
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Skull hood ornament

Telecommunications in general, and broadband in particular, aren’t getting much attention at the California capitol this year. Friday was the deadline for introducing new bills for this year and, aside from privacy issues, nothing regarding telecoms that’s particularly substantive landed in the hopper.

Pacific Gas and Electric company and the California Public Utilities Commission, on the other hand, are in the gunsights of senator Jerry Hill (D- San Mateo). He floated a bill on Friday that would take much of the job of regulating PG&E away from the CPUC, and give it to the California legislature (h/t to Fred Pilot at the Eldo Telecom blog for the pointer).… More

Spreading high tech wealth and restricting self-employment on California governor’s to do list

14 February 2019 by Steve Blum
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California governor Gavin Newsom took aim at technology companies during his state of the state address on Tuesday. Although bullish on California’s high tech economy, he dangled the possibility of a tax on data…

California is proud to be home to technology companies determined to change the world. But companies that make billions of dollars collecting, curating and monetizing our personal data have a duty to protect it. Consumers have a right to know and control how their data is being used.

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