As Paradise Rebuild Begins, PG&E Commits to Underground Power Lines
We decided to rebuild in this way after a careful review of factors, town planning and safety considerations.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) announced today that it will put
all electric distribution power lines underground in the Town of
Paradise and some of the surrounding areas as the town rebuilds from the
Camp Fire.
The announcement was made by Aaron Johnson, vice president of electric
operations at PG&E, at a special meeting of the town council.
“As part of our commitment to help this community recover and to harden
our electric system to protect against wildfires, PG&E has decided to
build our electric distribution system underground in the Town of
Paradise and in some of the surrounding areas like parts of Magalia,”
Johnson told the council. “We decided to rebuild in this way after a
careful review of factors, town planning and safety considerations. This
is just one of many ways we are trying to assist communities in their
recovery.”
PG&E weighed many factors in its decision, with the goal of reducing
wildfire risk, meeting the community’s desire for unobstructed egress
and the town’s urban design process helping drive that decision.
Paradise is well suited for the underground build as PG&E needs to
replace 74 miles of damaged natural gas lines. This provides
opportunities for joint trenching for both electric and gas
infrastructure.
Due to the amount of engineering, design and construction, the
underground rebuild will occur over five years. Engineering an
underground system requires designing the system around existing water,
natural gas and drainage systems, as well as planning for future road
widening and the possibility of a sewer system for Paradise.
As PG&E rebuilds to underground the “backbone” of power lines serving
Paradise it will simultaneously be installing temporary overhead service
where needed to meet individual and neighborhood service as people
rebuild and as it begins undergrounding electric service.
PG&E is still refining cost estimates for the undergrounding project,
but the undergrounding will occur at no additional cost to the town as
part of PG&E’s overall grid hardening efforts over the coming years.
Transmission lines in Paradise will not be part of the project as these
lines were not damaged in the fire.
About PG&E
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E
Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is one of the largest combined natural gas
and electric energy company in the United States. Based in San
Francisco, with more than 20,000 employees, the company delivers some of
the nation’s cleanest energy to 15 million people in Northern and
Central California. For more information, visit www.pge.com/
and http://www.pge.com/about/newsroom/.
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