System Inspections Program

The Wildfire Safety Inspection Program was a one-time program that established a baseline to evaluate and fix equipment specifically to further reduce wildfire risk ahead of the 2019 wildfire season. Our updated System Inspections Program continues to build on that foundation by incorporating the inspections methods and learnings about fire risks from the 2019 Wildfire Safety Inspection Program. This helps the System Inspections Program promote general safety and reliability through our service territory.

Our crews inspect and take high-definition photographs of electric equipment. For distribution equipment, this is done through ground inspections. For transmission equipment, this is done via ground or climbing inspections or, in some cases, via helicopter or drone inspections.

We are conducting inspections more frequently than regulations require in order to address wildfire risk, prioritizing work in areas of extreme (Tier 3) and elevated (Tier 2) wildfire risk as defined by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) High Fire-Threat District Map. In 2020, we plan to inspect more than 15,000 miles of electric lines, including all lines in Tier 3 areas and one-third of lines in Tier 2 areas. We inspect infrastructure in non-high fire-threat areas at least every five years.

If we need to inspect electric equipment located on private property, PG&E will attempt to contact property owners before the work begins. Property owners will receive a courtesy notification via door hanger, phone call (IVR), or postcard if crews will inspect equipment on their property, as well as if helicopter or drone inspections will be conducted in the area.

PG&E uses inspection results to prioritize and manage equipment repair needs. We promptly repair the highest-priority equipment issues found through inspections. Repairs for all other conditions will be scheduled for completion as part of our routine work plan.

There may be some cases where we need to turn off power to a specific electric line to ensure the safety of our crews while they are conducting repairs. If we do need to temporarily turn off power to a line to safely complete this work, we aim to notify customers with as much advance warning as possible through a letter, automated phone call, text message or door hanger.

Anyone with questions about this work is encouraged to email us at wildfiresafety@pge.com.

In 2019, we completed accelerated safety inspections through the Wildfire Safety Inspection Program to further reduce wildfire risk. The program was designed to evaluate all PG&E equipment in areas of extreme (Tier 3) and elevated (Tier 2) wildfire risk as defined by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) High Fire-Threat District Map.

By the end of 2019, PG&E completed inspections of all the approximately 700,000 distribution poles, 50,000 electric transmission structures and 222 substations, covering more than 5,500 miles of transmission line and more than 25,000 miles of distribution line.

All of the highest-priority conditions found through the 2019 inspections have been repaired or made safe. Repairs for all other conditions are scheduled for completion as part of PG&E’s routine work plan.

PG&E also launched new technology initiatives through the Wildfire Safety Inspection Program such as drone inspections and a centralized review of high-resolution photos of assets. We have incorporated these initiatives into our updated and ongoing System Inspections Program.

The final results of our 2019 accelerated inspections and high-priority repairs are available for download below:

• Download a county-by-county breakdown of inspections and repairs (PDF, 250 KB)
• Download a more detailed breakdown of the repairs, including descriptions of the conditions (XLSX, 1.4 MB)

We have made the final results of our 2019 accelerated inspections and high-priority repairs publicly available. Customers can filter this information by city and county, as well as view the geographic locations of equipment with high-priority repairs.

We prioritized repairs using a tag system that was based on the potential safety impact of the identified condition, with "A" tags being the highest priority.

We used the following categories for high-priority conditions:

• "A" conditions required immediate repairs. All "A" tags have been repaired, made safe or are being actively worked on.
• "B" conditions generally needed to be addressed within three months from the date the condition was identified.

We documented our inspections through millions of high-resolution photographs taken by PG&E crews, drones and helicopters. The photographs were reviewed by dedicated teams with system maintenance, engineering and maintenance planning experience. The photographs were then evaluated by experts who rated how severe the condition of the equipment was, assigned the conditions a priority level and sent out repair notifications. Throughout the inspection process, we addressed and repaired conditions that posed an immediate safety risk, while completing other high-priority repairs on an accelerated basis. Repairs for other conditions are scheduled for completion as part of our work plan.