County staff, SDG&E to work on power shut-off vulnerabilities

If high winds create the risk of a San Diego Gas & Electric power line causing a wildfire, SDG&E will shut off electrical power to that area. That creates vulnerabilities for those without power, and SDG&E will be working with San Diego County staff to address those vulnerabilities.

On March 2, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 to direct the county’s chief administrative officer to identify gaps in Power Safety Power Shutdown mitigations and identify opportunities to reduce the impacts including health and safety needs, assistance to individuals with special access and functional requirements and backup power for traffic signals and other road infrastructure.

The process will involve collaboration with stakeholders including SDG&E, county representatives and other public agencies and organizations. The chief administrative officer was also directed to work with state of California representatives to pursue public funding to address the gaps and to pursue private funding which might be available, and the CAO will return to the board within 180 days with a report and recommendations to reduce power safety power shut-off impacts in the county.

A separate 5-0 vote, Tuesday, March 2, approved the acceptance of a $607,238 Community Power Resiliency grant from the state Office of Emergency Services which will provide $303,664 for an emergency generator for the county's Health Services Complex in San Diego, $151,832 for emergency backup generators at the Lake Morena, San Pasqual and Sunshine Summit fire stations, and $151,832 to replace traffic signal backup batteries at 54 intersections throughout the unincorporated area.

“I really appreciate it,” county supervisor Joel Anderson said.

Downed power lines have been responsible for numerous wildfires in San Diego County this century including the October 2007 Rice Fire which began in Rainbow and, after the October 2007 fires, SDG&E identified high fire risk areas.

If high winds create the risk of both a downed power line and a fast spread of a wildfire, power is shut off to the specific areas with high risk. SDG&E began using public safety power shut-offs in 2013 and has since refined the program to target specific areas and provide notification to area residents and businesses.

“Power safety shut-offs are important to keep people safe. We do not take this responsibility lightly and only use shut-offs as a last resort,” Joe Galbadon, SDG&E public affairs manager, said.

Public safety power shut-offs during 2019 impacted 48,740 customer meters, and the outages ranged from one hour to 24 hours. During 2020, power was shut off to 100,725 meters and the shut-offs lasted between seven and 35 hours. County supervisor Jim Desmond said that power in parts of Fallbrook was shut off on Christmas Eve.

“It can really disrupt your life, especially in unincorporated areas,” Desmond said.

The 2019 outages impacted 66 communities including Indian reservations and portions of the city of San Diego. The 2020 shut-offs impacted 44 communities including Indian reservations and seven incorporated cities.

“It’s not just the rural areas that are impacted,” Desmond said.

San Diego County maintains traffic signals at approximately 200 intersections in the unincorporated area, and the California Department of Transportation maintains signals at any unincorporated intersection involving at least one interstate freeway or state highway.

All traffic signals default to flashing red lights if power is lost or if the signal malfunctions, and the flashing red lights can be maintained for four to eight hours before the signal loses energy. If power is not restored after that time the light functions of the signal can be lost.

“I’m grateful that this includes battery backup,” Desmond said of the funding approved March 2.

Desmond said that the extended loss of power to signals has resulted in a total lack of lighting during darkness hours.

“We need to address that,” he said.

The Community Power Resiliency program was called the Local Government Public Safety Power shut-off Resiliency Program in January 2020 when the Board of Supervisors accepted a $1,214,656 grant, and that day the county supervisors also approved the purchase and installation of six emergency generators for County Library branches in Campo, Descanso, Jacumba, Julian, Pine Valley and Potrero.

The plan to be developed by county staff in conjunction with stakeholders over the 180-day period, if not shorter, will focus on increasing regional resiliency and will help prioritize the distribution of grant funding from the state as well as determine whether additional funding opportunities are available to mitigate public safety power shut-off events.

Joe Naiman can be reached by email at [email protected].