SDG&E encounters resistance to pre-emptive power shutoff plan

San Diego Gas and Electric is seeking approval from the Public Utilities Commission to turn off the power to large sections of San Diego County during periods of high fire danger.

From 10news:

A plan to shut off power to prevent power lines from sparking a wildfire has SDG&E at odds with some water districts around the county.  It may force the water districts to buy generators to keep the water running.

“The power demand of the station is the equivalent of a small city,” said Gary Arant.

The Bettsworth station is the Valley Center Municipal Water District’s main pumping station.  It takes around 5 megawatts to power the facility.

“I can’t have my water system without power for 12, 18, 24 , 36 hours,” said Arant, the district’s general manager.

He is referring to SDG&E’s emergency power shut off plan.  The plan calls for power lines to be shut off during high wind and dry conditions to avoid sparking a fire.

“Our concern is, with the SDG&E plan, we’re going to need about 8 to 12 of these units just maintain the critical service,” Arant said.

If the power is shut off, Arant says he would need auxiliary generators at a cost of $2.8 million to keep water running for customers and firefighters.  But, Arant said negotiations with SDG&E have come to a halt.

“To have them unilaterally pull the information and pull the offers off the table was very disappointing,” Arant said.

He said the utility company had been willing to work with them on offsetting the costs of the generators among other agreements, but now they will have to go before the Public Utility Commission for arbitration.

“We’re assuming they’re going to seek permission through the PUC and they’re going to try to not compensate us for the extra cost,” said Arant.

Calif. power company continues push for preemptive power outage

San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) is continuing to push for permission from the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to shut off power to large areas of San Diego County during periods of high fire danger. To bolster thier case, the company said that during the last five and a half years, their equipment has caused 167 fires, including the Witch Creek, Guejito, and Rico Canyon fires in 2007 that burned over 200,000 acres. Wildfire Today covered this controversial preemptive power outage plan on October 4, 2008.

The areas that could be affected are shown in brown, outlined with a dotted line. Map: San Diego Union-Tribune

The plan would affect up to 150,000 people at a time, shutting off their water, cable, internet, and phone service.

An excerpt from the San Diego Union:

“You could lose your home. If that’s the alternative, a little inconvenience for half a day or a day, that’s not an issue to us,” said Rancho Bernardo resident Jeff Smith.

But others, like his neighbor who also lost her home in the wildfires, disagree.

“I don’t see how that is going to prevent anything they need to make sure that their transformers are really secure and all their equipment is working. I don’t think a power outage is going to prevent a wildfire,” said Lisa Winston.

The Public Utilities Commission will hold two hearings in April to hear public comments about the shut-off plan. The first will be April 7th at the Alpine Community Center and the second will be held April 8th at Harrah’s Rincon Resort and Casino.

A final decision on the safety plan is expected to be made in August before the start of fire season.

As we reported on January 29, 2009:

San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E), whose powerlines have been identified by CalFire investigators as causing the devastating Witch and Rice fires that burned large areas of eastern San Diego County in 2007, have said they intend to sue 14 of their customers whose homes burned in the fires. More than 1,100 homes and 197,000 acres burned, but SDG&E claims that the homeowners “failed to maintain property in respect to brush clearance”. The power company’s strategy is a counter suit to offset the suits of their customers who lost their homes.

If SDG&E spent as much energy maintaining their equipment as they do lobbying the PUC and suing their customers, they could eliminate much of the potential to start fires.

Power company sues their customers after burning down their houses

San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E), whose powerlines have been identified by CalFire investigators as causing the devastating Witch and Rice fires that burned large areas of eastern San Diego County in 2007, have said they intend to sue 14 of their customers whose homes burned in the fires. More than 1,100 homes and 197,000 acres burned, but SDG&E claims that the homeowners “failed to maintain property in respect to brush clearance”. The power company’s strategy is a countersuit to offset the suits of their customers who lost their homes.

Some of the homeowners are understandably stunned by this development.

This is like, for instance, if someone had a vicious dog who escaped through an improperly maintained fence, then attacked you and caused serious injury. Could the dog owner sue you for not carrying a weapon so you could have fought off the dog just before it attacked you?

As Wildfire Today reported on January 25, there are a gazillion lawsuits related to these fires. which so far are keeping over 150 lawyers gainfully employed and involve $1 billion.

Attorneyatlaw.com has more details.

HERE is a link to a map of the Witch fire.

UPDATE: January 30 @ 2:03 MT

As we have written in the past, we are strong advocates of the Prepare, Stay, and Defend program, for less flammable building materials, for property owners to maintain a fire safe environment around their structures, and for firefighters not being forced into unsafe situations fighting fire at unprepared homes. But if it turns out to be the case, as it appears now, that the fire was caused by negligence of the power company, it is unconscionable for them to sue their customers whose homes would not have burned down if the power company had not started the fire.

Wildfire news, October 15, 2008

California: Power company criticized for fire danger related power shut-off plan

San Diego Gas and Electric announced earlier that they planned to shut off power to large areas of San Diego County during periods of strong winds and high fire danger. It turns out that not everyone is crazy about the concept. From CBS8:

SDG&E is under fire for its proposal to shut off power during high winds in wildfire-prone areas.

At a meeting Tuesday night in front of the State Public Utility Commission, San Diegans voiced their concerns about the idea.

Also present at the meeting, county officials asked the commission for a full investigation into the matter.

“To convince the commission to do the right thing and hold SDG&E’s feet to the fire to do what they should’ve done years ago, changing the poles from wood to steel, more spacing between the lines and better tree-trimming vegetation management,” said County Supervisor Dianne Jacob.

A SDG&E representative at the meeting said the company is committed to doing whatever is possible to make its system safer.

HERE is a link to a video news report on the subject.

Night flying helicopters in San Diego County

Some politicians in the San Diego area continue to be obsessed with night flying firefighting helicopters. Some of them still think that a few water drops when the 2003 Cedar fire began as the sun was setting could have prevented it from growing to 270,000 acres. The fact is, the strong Santa Ana winds at the time would have made any helicopter drops ineffective.

Here is an excerpt from a story in the North County Times:

Five years after local officials were infuriated by a decision to ground aircraft at sunset rather than attack California’s largest wildfire in its infancy, the region is moving —- albeit slowly —- to battle blazes from the air after dark.

State fire officials said helicopters did not fly at night during this week’s San Diego County wildfires, largely because pilots were able to knock down flames with water and fire retardant during the day.

But the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or CalFire, has opened the door to making drops at night over the backcountry areas it is responsible for protecting, including 1 million acres in San Diego County.

And the state agency gave the city of San Diego the green light in September to fly its two twin-engine firefighting helicopters over those areas, in the event another inferno like those of 2003 and 2007 breaks out.

“CalFire has agreed to allow night flying in state responsibility areas if they determine that the equipment is safe,” said county Supervisor Dianne Jacob, who represents much of the backcountry, including Ramona. “This is a historic change in policy.”

While it is disappointing the state did not give a green light to the county because it does not consider its helicopters to be safe, Jacob said a future aircraft purchase, possibly with money from a November ballot measure, could put the county in the night firefighting business.

For now, said sheriff’s Lt. Phil Brust, county helicopters will focus on flames during daylight hours.

“During the day, we can do any mission that is asked of us,” Brust said. “But once the sun goes down, they (CalFire officials) are not comfortable flying in those helicopters.”

The county sheriff helicopters are both single-engine Bell 205 models.

Division Chief Tom Humann, aviation safety officer for CalFire in Sacramento, said the state agency doesn’t consider single-engine helicopters safe because, if the engine goes out, the pilot has no choice but to bring the aircraft down.

In daylight, a pilot has a 180-degree range of view to rely on for spotting an emergency landing spot, he said. But at night, even with night-vision goggles, a pilot’s range is 40 degrees.

“It’s kind of like looking through a couple of toilet paper rolls,” Humann said.

And a pilot is much more likely to crash at night in a single-engine aircraft, he said.

Washington, D.C wildland fire presentation

The folks at the Department of Interior in D.C. apparently think that the residents of their fair city need wildland “fire-proofing tips for homeowners”.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Department of the Interior will host a multi-media presentation on wildland fire prevention and containment, featuring fire-proofing tips for homeowners and first-hand experiences of Interior firefighters, on Saturday, October 18, 2008, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. in the Yates Auditorium of the Main Interior Building. The public is invited to attend this free family event, entitled “Smokejumpers, Groundpounders and Shots – Tales from Wildland Fire” at 1849 C Street NW, Washington, DC 20240.

San Diego preemptive power outage gets mixed reviews

The plan by San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) to turn off electricity to large portions of the county during periods of strong winds and low fuel moisture is being applauded by some and criticized by others. The company’s power lines have been blamed for starting numerous large fires over the last 40 years and they are probably very concerned about their liability and how it will affect their profits.

They have several options:

  1. Reduce the chances that the power lines will start fires by ensuring that wooden poles, fuses and switches are in satisfactory condition, replacing some wooden poles with metal poles, putting some lines underground, improving their tree-trimming programs along the lines, and inspecting the lines more frequently.
  2. Implement the preemptive power outage program during Santa Ana wind events. This risks receiving heavy criticism from their customers who need power for medical equipment, traffic lights, telephones, garage door openers, and water systems. Convince tens of thousands of individuals, companies, and agencies to purchase and install emergency backup power systems, or have SDG&E pay for the systems. Option #2 may result in them getting sued.
  3. Do nothing, and continue to have their power lines start fires. They will continue to get sued if they choose this option.

As far as we know, this is an unprecedented plan, turning off power to large areas because the lines may start a fire during strong winds. They may be hoping that by scaring the public about losing their power, the state legislature will exempt the company from liability.

The scare-the-public tactic works for the Bush administration. It may work for SDG&E.