Mandatory Power Outages Fail to Stop California Wildfires
Devastating wildfires in California have become so commonplace that they barely make national headlines anymore, despite causing catastrophic damage, loss of property, and loss of life. A large utility company, Pacific Gas & Electric Corp., has been blamed in the past for not properly maintaining power lines and transmitters, and that this poor care has quite literally “sparked” some of the most destructive blazes. So the utility company, in response, has put a new policy into place: mandatory blackouts. But will they work to stop wildfires? Here, btw takes a closer look at the reasoning behind this policy, its effectiveness, and how long Californians can expect these new outages to last.
Why a Blackout?
In the past, high winds have caused damage to power lines in heavily forested areas, which has led to wildfires. PG&E has been instructed to do a better job trimming and maintaining trees near the lines, but the company says it could take years to do that effectively enough to really put a dent in the number of wildfires. In the meantime, the utility company is periodically shutting off power to certain zones during high wind season. The utility is calling these mandatory blackouts “Public Safety Power Shutoff” events.
What Has Been the Response?
Obviously, having millions of people without power is a problem. But what’s worse is that the utility company seemed unprepared for their own blackouts: for example, during Public Safety Power Shutoff events this month, their Web site has crashed and their call centers have become overwhelmed from dealing with so many customers all at once. The governor of California has even called for the utility to issue rebates to households and small businesses affected by the outages.
But PG&E pointed out earlier this month that there were no catastrophic wildfires during the outages, making the mandatory blackout program a success. In fact, they said that mandatory shutoff events will likely be a strategy they employ for the next decade.
A Success . . . Until Now
On October 23, however, a broken 230,000-volt transmission line malfunctioned in Sonoma County, California, while the power was still on. Moments later, a wildfire–now known as the Kincade Fire–broke out. Twenty-three minutes later, PG&E cut off service to the area, but by then, it was too late.
As of Sunday morning–a little more than three days after the fire ignited–thirty thousand acres had already burned. Forty-nine buildings, including 21 homes, were lost to the blaze, which was fueled by “diablo winds” of up to 93 mph. Over 90,000 people faced mandatory evacuation, despite the fact that all evacuation centers in the area were already at capacity. Meanwhile, 2.35 million people were without power, and the fire was only 10 percent contained.