Last year, an investigation of the late 2019 Public Safety Power Shut-off (PSPS) events was opened by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in an effort to ensure utilities were held accountable for shutting off power to approximately 2 million people across 35 counties.  The CPUC directed its Safety and Enforcement Division (SED) to assess whether utilities complied with guidelines and recommendations for these events and determine the effectiveness of the actions taken such as the notifications from utilities to public safety partners and customers, as well as ensuring public safety during these planned power outages.  On September 14, 2020 the CPUC released the SED Report on those late 2019 PSPS events to parties in the De-Energization Proceeding, a report which was finalized earlier this year on April 30, 2020.  The scope of SED’s review, unfortunately, was very limited and only advisory in nature, making no determinations of actual compliance with CPUC rules and directives.  Although the CPUC had the results of that report in their possession, they thwarted efforts from multiple stakeholders, including RCRC, to conduct reasonableness reviews of PSPS events to ensure they are a last resort and executed properly by utilities.  RCRC’s full feedback to the Commission on this report can be found here.

RCRC takes a holistic approach to energy resiliency, focusing on system resiliency efforts to maintain reliable service.  On September 28th, RCRC submitted comments in the Microgrids Proceeding regarding an interim approach for minimizing emissions from temporary generation during transmission outages, see here. RCRC suggests the CPUC evaluate how existing biomass facilities may support local microgrid development and community resiliency strategies since many PSPS-prone communities are in rural areas and also face a heightened risk of wildfire.  RCRC strongly supports the increased utilization of biomass energy generation to facilitate forest health improvement projects that return forestlands to their natural density and fuel load.