Community Wildfire Safety Program

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Expanding Our Efforts To Prevent Wildfires

High temperatures, extreme dryness and record-high winds have created conditions in California where any spark at the wrong time and place can lead to a major wildfire. Nearly one-third of the electric lines that provide our customers with power are now in High Fire-Threat District areas, as designated by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). Our Community Wildfire Safety Program includes short-, medium- and long-term plans to make our system safer.

Public Safety Power Shutoffs During COVID-19

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact our communities, we understand the increasing struggles facing our customers. In response, PG&E has identified the essential work needed to serve our customers and communities. This essential work includes emergency response, critical maintenance and work to further prepare for Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS). This has been done in consultation with and consistent with direction from the California Office of Emergency Services, CAL FIRE and CPUC.

How We Are Taking Action

Our teams are working every day to continue to improve the safety of our electric system and further reduce wildfire risks. See our progress by county (PDF, 8.1 MB). This includes:

ROUTINE SAFETY INSPECTIONS OF ELECTRIC INFRASTRUCTURE

As part of our multifaceted safety efforts, we conduct safety inspections of electric equipment across our service territory. We are prioritizing this work in high fire-threat areas.

MAKING OUR SYSTEM STRONGER AND MORE RESILIENT

We’re improving our infrastructure with stronger poles, covered power lines and targeted undergrounding. We are also installing “sectionalizing” devices and switches and working to make the grid more flexible during outages and establishing new temporary microgrid technology.

MEETING AND EXCEEDING STATE VEGETATION AND FIRE SAFETY STANDARDS

We have expanded and enhanced vegetation safety work to address vegetation that poses a higher potential for wildfire risk in high fire-threat areas.

IMPROVING PUBLIC SAFETY POWER SHUTOFF EVENTS

While PSPS is an important wildfire safety tool, we know that losing power disrupts lives. We are only using PSPS events as a last resort when the weather forecast is so severe lives, homes and businesses may be in danger of wildfires. Given this, we are focused on reducing PSPS impacts without compromising your safety.

IMPROVING OUR WEATHER MONITORING TECHNOLOGY

To further improve our weather forecasting capabilities, we are continuing to build our own network of weather stations to better predict and respond to severe weather threats. You can view the data collected by our weather stations by visiting pge.com/weather and MesoWest.

INSTALLING MORE HIGH-DEFINITION CAMERAS

We are adding high-definition cameras to achieve our goal of nearly 600 cameras in our service territory by the end of 2022. You can view images collected by our HD cameras by visiting pge.com/weather and ALERT Wildfire.

WILDFIRE SAFETY OPERATIONS CENTER

We continue to coordinate prevention and response efforts by monitoring wildfire risks in real time from our Wildfire Safety Operations Center. The center monitors high-fire threat areas, which encompass nearly one-third of PG&E’s service area. The center also observes weather model information, satellite images and other enhanced, real-time data for experts tracking wildfire conditions and threats.

Do You Live in a High Fire-Threat Area?

The CPUC worked with CAL FIRE and other utility and public safety experts to develop a Fire-Threat Map adopted in January 2018. The map identifies areas across California that have the highest likelihood of a wildfire impacting people and property, and where additional action may be necessary to reduce wildfire risk.

• Tier 3 areas are at extreme risk for wildfire
• Tier 2 areas are at elevated risk for wildfire
• Zone 1 Tier 1 High Hazard Zones are areas with high numbers of dead and dying trees

Enhanced Vegetation Management

PG&E's Enhanced Vegetation Management (EVM) program addresses vegetation that poses a higher potential for wildfire risk in high fire-threat areas. PG&E’s goal is to complete 1,800 EVM miles by the end of 2021, out of approximately 2,400 miles of total 2021 EVM scope of work. The 2021 goal is a subset of the total scope of work to account for projected operational constraints, including access issues, environmental considerations and permitting requirements. Our 2021 EVM scope of work addresses the top 1-3% of the risk.