December 16, 2020 - SAN FRANCISCO - The Wildfire Safety Advisory Board (the Board) approved a Guidance Advisory Opinion for the 2021 Wildfire Mitigation Plans of Electric Publicly Owned Utilities and Cooperatives at its December 9, 2020 Board meeting.
The Guidance Advisory Opinion meets the statutory obligation of Assembly Bill 1054 (2019, Holden), which added Section 326.2(c) to the Public Utilities Code. Section 326.2(c) requires the Board to review the Wildfire Mitigation Plans (WMP) submitted by Electric Publicly Owned Utilities and Cooperatives (together, POUs), and provide comments and an Advisory Opinion.
The goal of the Guidance Advisory Opinion is to highlight themes the Board found across the 50 WMPs it reviewed and create guidelines for the POUs to develop and deliver the most consequential information about their wildfire risk mitigation actions and planning processes in the future. The recommendations in this guidance document should be viewed as offering an efficient way to meet the WMP requirements in Public Utilities Code Section 8387(b)(2), not as adding to the statutory requirements. The 14 recommendations are organized into five different categories including:
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1 – 4 |
Plan Structure: Introducing a risk profile upfront, including information about approval processes, independent evaluations, and a structure for the 2021 plan updates. |
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5 – 6 |
Customer Impacts: The impact of Investor-Owned Utility Public Safety Power Shutoffs, communication to customers regarding Investor-Owned Utility Public Safety Power Shutoffs, regular communication plans to customers, and separating citywide emergency preparedness from wildfire mitigation. |
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7 – 9 |
The Grid: System hardening and grid design, infrastructure inspections, and discovering previously unidentified risks. |
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10 – 11 |
Risk Assessment: Assesses POU approaches to risk assessment related to design and construction, and situational awareness programs and technologies. |
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12 – 14 |
Vegetation Management: More comprehensive descriptions of treatments, the qualifications of the personnel that evaluate vegetation management plans and perform certain dangerous activities, and innovative approaches to vegetation and forest management. |
The Board’s Guidance Advisory Opinion is available at: https://bit.ly/34h9SgZ.
The December 9, 2020 Board Meeting can be viewed at: http://adminmonitor.com/ca/cpuc/workshop/202012092/.
Additional information is available at www.cpuc.ca.gov/wsab or by emailing WildfireSafetyAdvisoryBoard@cpuc.ca.gov.
Assembly Bill 1054, signed into law in July 2019, created the California Wildfire Safety Advisory Board, a board of independent expert advisors, with two primary functions: First, to advise a new Wildfire Safety Division within the CPUC on wildfire safety measures, including plans written by utilities, so the CPUC can more effectively regulate the safety of investor-owned utilities. Second, to review the Wildfire Mitigation Plans submitted by Electric Publicly Owned Utilities and Cooperatives and provide an advisory opinion. The Wildfire Safety Advisory Board also serves as an additional forum for the public to provide input on the important topic of wildfire safety.
Source: CPUC
