update PG&E/fires

PG&E faces lawsuits, damages 'north of $20 billion'

Anne C. Mulkern, E&E News reporter

Tuesday, November 20, 2018      https://www.eenews.net/energywire/stories/1060107081

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11-20-18   A utility facing severe financial pressure amid speculation its equipment may have sparked a deadly Northern California wildfire asked U.S. energy regulators last month for permission to raise its customers’ monthly bills to harden its system against wildfires and deliver a sizable increase in profits to shareholders….

  PG&E is asking for a 9.5 percent increase in transmission charges – the cost of high-voltage lines that move power across large distances.  That amounts to about $1.50 more per month for the average residential customer, Paulo said….

  PG&E reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission this week that it had renewed its insurance coverage for wildfires to about $1.4 billion for the year covering this fire season.  But an analyst at Citi Investment Research estimated damages could exceed $15 billion.  And the company’s potential liability for last year’s fires has been pegged at upward of $10 billion.

  Some analysts believe PG&E will be able to survive financially as long as there isn’t another major catastrophe.  But wildfires are getting bigger, deadlier and more destructive as housing pushes into rural areas and drought and high temperatures tied to climate change become the norm….

  Fire investigators have blamed PG&E equipment for 12 of last year’s wildfires, including two that killed 15 people combined.  In eight of those fires, investigators said they found evidence of violations of state law and forwarded the findings to prosecutors.

  The company is facing dozens of lawsuits from insurers and people who lost their homes in last year.  And a lawsuit this week blames PG&E for the latest fire, accusing the company failing to effectively maintain power lines.  https://www.claimsjournal.com/news/west/2018/11/20/287925.htm

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11-11-2018    Of course, we need to assure protection against utility-associated wildfire, but PG&E is spending so much money on its unprecedented effort to cut down healthy, mature trees, that this diverts funds away from the investments necessary to make their system safer with long overdue infrastructure improvements.

  The most important actions to dramatically increase safety, are to eliminate weak strength “bare line conductors,” the dominant wire used throughout rural areas (thin and not insulated), and to replace this antique wire with high strength insulated “tree wire” and install high impedance arc fault interruption devices.  This “off the shelf” gear instantly cuts power to broken wires before they fall to the ground, preventing both fire and electrocution.  This solves the problem long-term, without massive tree removals that create wind-corridors and actually speed the spread of wildfires.

  The Board of Supervisors, the State Legislature and the CPUC should quickly require stronger safety measures than what PG&E is doing in its program.  This would save hundreds of thousands of trees across the state.  The public safety improvement and the economics of doing so are far superior.   https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/2018/11/11/kevin-collins-pges-wildfire-safety-program-is-a-destructive-diversion/
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as of Nov. 18  Camp fire

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https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/11/19/california-fires-rains-finally-coming-scorched-paradise/2052993002/

 Camp fire at 70% containment today with rain forecast coming in to Chico area on 21st, 22nd Thanksgiving, perhaps on 23rd.  Rain also for SF Bay area and other points.