Posted on 12/11/2019 7:14:55 PM PST by karpov
Sustained power outages caused by electric-wire failures in Northern California could double or even quadruple in years to come unless PG&E Corp. PCG -1.46% steps up its replacement of aging equipment, according to a utility-commissioned analysis.
PG&E’s current rate of electric-line replacement falls far short of what’s needed to prevent a surge of failures due to the effects of aging, according to the analysis by researchers at Georgia Tech.
The analysis suggests the current focus on upgrading distribution lines in areas of extreme fire risk fails to solve a more basic problem of age-related deterioration, especially in coastal areas where gear often ages faster. The analysis was released by regulators to The Wall Street Journal in a public records request.
If electric-wire replacement continues at the rate currently proposed by the utility, PG&E customers should expect a doubling of sustained power outages in 15 years and a fourfold increase in 30 years, according to the analysis by the National Electric Testing, Research and Applications Center at Georgia Tech, which did the analysis for PG&E last year.
To prevent this outcome, the utility would need to replace at least 1,200 miles of its oldest distribution lines each year. At that pace, the utility’s distribution system would be completely refreshed every 67 years, the study found.
At the current proposed level of replacement—about 100 circuit miles annually due to aging—researchers said it would take the utility about 230 years to refresh its distribution system. They assumed the typical electric wire has a useful life of about 83 years.
PG&E has been in crisis mode for more than a year after a series of wildfires that regulators attributed to the utility’s equipment, including the Camp Fire that destroyed the city of Paradise, Calif., and killed 85 people.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Sounds like a threat. Leftists are such nice people.
I think it’s a warning and a call to action rather than a “threat”.
How many years to upgrade?
Utilities are necessarily a fascist/socialist industry.
Imagine if every industry in Calif was run by the state too.
Cut down small and dead trees, clear out brush, keep the grasses trimmed down - all things which are lost in the stampede to condemn PG&E. Oh, and for Pete's sake, restore Skyway to a two lane road in both directions - narrowing the primary evacuation route is something that should have landed Paradise's city council in jail.
If Andrew Cuomo is any example, California would place roadblocks impeding upgrades yet still penalize PG&E.
I hope it is. But it sounds like intimidation to justify higher rates and fees to me.
Just a WAG but I’ll bet CA already has the highest fees for maintenance and improvements embedded in their utility bills.
My wife and I, Californians for most of our lives, Thank God Almighty for the inspiration to leave the state more than 10 years ago.
Left behind family, friends and, good paying jobs to start anew in Florida. In the last 10+ years things in California have gotten exponentially worse. We still visit but, again, thank God Almighty we left when we did.
5 dollars a kilowatt for all of those rich Californian’s sounds about right.
Real estate has to take a real hit someday out there. 10 cents on the dollar wouldn’t surprise me.
See GNRC stock chart
I would imagine that most of the smart people like yourself have left already. The rest has to be in denial or something. Venezuela could come real quick out there with those insane leaders. They got so many illegals now, even if the people wake up, there won’t have enough votes to get rid of commie destroyers.
California is now a state in name only. It once rivaled countries in its prosperity and is now a sh*thole socialist state. It’s actually very sad.
We did the same thing about five years ago. Seems like ever since then the legislature in Sacramento has run amok, passing the most ridiculous bills. We left and went to Tennessee, didn’t know a soul and didn’t have jobs. But it all worked out great.
I worked in a regulated public utility doing research as I was completing law school. It was regulatory hell. George Stigler posited the “capture theory” of regulation, but at least in my experience he was completely out of phase. Our utility was completely subservient to the regulators, and actually spent a lot of time wondering what the Utilities commission wanted in advance so they could deliver it. Many energy efficiency programs (rebates, home energy audits, etc.) were a total joke, just wheel spinning. But the utility personnel wanted to be sure that they accomplished every little detail of the regulator’s requested energy programs, despite lots of evidence they were not cost effective.
I can imagine the PG&E very special hell of facing the California version of what I saw in the Midwest. I suggest they just turn the entire company to the state and leave. Now!
Very soon California will become a true Third World Banana Republic state. A state of the very wealthy behind security gates surrounded by the very poor. No Middle Class to speak of as they have fled.
That never lasts for very long. The wealthy Libs will one day discover that walls are a deterrent. They are not invincible. No wall is. What will be the end result? That remains to be seen.
The bigger problem is, most Libs who leave to escape their policies vote exactly the same in the states they escape to.
Someone once said, Liberalism is a Mental Disorder. Whoever said this is correct. We suffer for it.
The topic here (ageing infrastructure) is also a problem here in the NYC metro area; as the middle class is expelled and replaced by Third World gibsmedats and scabs, there are fewer and fewer people paying to maintain crumbling roads, bridges, railways, etc..
They are inheriting the Earth, and with it the maintenance responsibilities. How is that working on in the former colonies from which many are trafficked here?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.