PG&E Retiring the Power Line That Sparked Deadly Camp Fire

(Bloomberg) -- PG&E Corp., the California utility giant that went bankrupt in January amid crippling wildfire liabilities, has permanently retired the transmission line that sparked the deadliest fire in state history.

The Caribou-Palermo transmission line, which sparked the November Camp Fire that killed 85 people and destroyed the entire town of Paradise, has been shut since December. It will remain down after the company discovered “wear” on mechanical hardware similar to the kind found on the transmission tower hook that failed near the start of the deadly blaze. The San Francisco utility owner has hired a consulting firm to conduct a review of the line at state regulators’ request.

“The number of safety risks we found is unacceptable and we have more work to do on this front,” Sumeet Singh, vice president of PG&E’s community wildfire safety program, said in a call with media.

PG&E’s inspections have been under the microscope since its equipment was blamed for the Camp Fire. An estimated $30 billion in liabilities from that blaze and previous ones forced PG&E into bankruptcy in January and led the company to overhaul its management team. The utility is now the subject of a criminal probe and has been ramping up inspections, repairs and other fire-prevention efforts.

On Wednesday, PG&E also disclosed that it had identified “several high-priority issues” on a section of a transmission line that runs through areas of Northern California’s Golden Gate National Recreation Area and serves the affluent city of Sausalito, just north of San Francisco. PG&E is preparing for repair work and said it will need to build a temporary transmission line to maintain service during the maintenance.

Over the past six months, PG&E said it had inspected about 50,000 transmission structures, 700,000 distribution poles and 222 substations. The utility uncovered nearly 100 conditions on its high-voltage transmission lines that posed an immediate risk and addressed them. About 15% to 20% of those were found on the Caribou-Palermo line, Singh said.

The San Francisco-based company warned a judge in April that it was running behind on inspections, repairs and tree-trimming due to circumstances beyond its control -- such as a rainy winter and permitting requirements.

PG&E hasn’t been able to meet all of its targets for safety work, but it has completed 99% of its inspections on distribution lines and 98% of inspections on the transmission system, Singh said. The overall program -- which includes tree trimming and other work -- may cost more than $2.3 billion, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Chediak in San Francisco at mchediak@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Doan at ldoan6@bloomberg.net, James Attwood

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