CPUC Hits Reset Button On Planned Blackouts

The California Public Utilities Commission has been forced by the state legislature to reopen the issue of electric power lines  in fire danger areas.

And with that will come a re-examination of its approval of pre-emptive blackouts.

And that led to a vote yesterday at the CPUC in San Francisco … to open up a new rulemaking process.

The agency put out a news release yesterday … claiming credit credit for … in its words … “acting to further protect the state from wildfires related to electric facilities by setting the framework to provide guidance on initial utility wildfire mitigation plans.”

What really happened is the legislature told it to get its act together … on pre-emptive blackouts … fire danger protection … and the precarious power grid serving California.

The CPUC has now reacted to Senate Bill 901 … signed by the governor two months ago.

The new law requires electric utilities to prepare and submit wildfire mitigation plans to the state.

The plans must spell out procedures to prevent, combat, and respond to wildfires.

The CPUC will review those initial plans … modify them if necessary … and slap the utilities’ wrists if they screw up.

And perhaps most importantly … this process will be open to the public and open for public comment.

Last summer … in an action that did not warrant any official state press release … the CPUC quietly did much the same thing …. but behind closed doors.

It told the utilities to come up with their own plan … which would be subject to the review by the state agency … but not necessarily the public.

That prompted legal action by Zuma Beach FM Broadcasters and then by the City of Malibu … seeking a formal rulemaking process and public vetting of everything.

That in essence is what the legislature then wrote into law … in SB 901.

What does all this mean for Malibu???
It means that the Southern California Edison Company still has permission … for now … to turn off the circuits in Malibu if it gets scared of approaching winds.

But those plans will now get modified by the CPUC in an open rulemaking proceeding … with affected parties like the fire department … city and private individuals making comments and having a voice.

And … power will be taken away from Southern California Edison … which will no longer have exclusive decision making authority on determining when the power goes off.