At the California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC’s) meeting on Thursday, El Dorado County Supervisor Lori Parlin and RCRC Advocate John Kennedy raised concerns to Commissioners over the multiple and prolonged non-PSPS power outages several rural communities have recently experienced. These outages are a result of systemwide grid hardening improvements to reduce wildfire ignition, including sensitive fast trip mechanisms to automatically de-energize a powerline if an object comes into contact with the line. Numerous rural residents from El Dorado and Santa Cruz Counties also voiced their frustration and provided their personal experiences with the challenges energy unreliability is wreaking on their schools, businesses, and community centers. Unlike proactive Public Safety Power Shut-off (PSPS) events, these are unplanned outages that would not typically result in advanced notice to customers and can be time consuming to re-energize because physical inspections of power equipment is needed. As more utility wildfire mitigation planning and system hardening efforts get underway, oversensitive circuits are not expected to be a problem confined to PG&E’s service territory alone. Complaints that cannot be resolved by your respective utility’s customer service representatives can be filed to the CPUC here. Please contact John Kennedy, RCRC Legislative Advocate, for more information.
