Marin’s essential services prepare for PG&E fire outages

May 25-- May 25--The impact of Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s planned power outages during high fire danger won't be limited to disabled refrigerators and dead laptop batteries.

Fire departments, hospitals, health clinics, telecommunications towers and other utilities such as water districts will also lose power, possibly for several days at a time. While many of these essential services will have backup power sources such as generators or batteries, it will be costly, and concern remains about whether residents will be prepared.

For Marin County fire Chief Jason Weber, one worry is being able to get out emergency notifications such as evacuation orders, especially if fire is approaching. Email, text, video and call alerts can only go so far as the phones, computers, televisions and telecommunications equipment have power.

"One of our primary focuses is making sure our community is ready as well as ourselves," Weber said. "This is real. ... From my perspective, it's absolutely critical that we are all ready for this."

PG&E began using the planned outages last year with the authorization of the California Public Utilities Commission after findings that PG&E equipment sparked recent, devastating wildfires. Earlier this month, state fire investigators concluded PG&E power lines sparked California's deadliest wildfire, the Camp Fire, which destroyed most of the city of Paradise and killed 85 people. The San Francisco-based utility company filed for bankruptcy earlier this year as it attempts to ward off wildfire-related liabilities estimated at $30 billion and an array of other debts.

Facing increased government and public scrutiny over the fires, the utility announced last year that it would be proactively shutting off power to its lines during forecasts of high fire risk. PG&E is expanding the outage practices for this summer to include not only distribution power lines, but also the transmission lines that power the utility's substations. This could mean larger, more widespread outages, but PG&E spokeswoman Deanna Contreras said the utility will be working with the California Independent System Operator to work to minimize the impact as much as possible.

"The devastating fires in 2017 and 2018 have made it clear that more must be done and with greater urgency to adapt and address the issue," Contreras said.

These outages will be most common in areas with elevated or extreme fire danger as determined by the California Public Utilities Commission. The vast majority of Marin County falls into these areas.

Another concern is how the outages will impact health care, whether it be for those residents who use electric medical equipment or diabetes patients who need to refrigerate their insulin. County Deputy Public Health Officer Lisa Santora said the county has emergency plans in place for patients and health care facilities such as nursing homes and hospitals, but said outage plans have caused the county to refocus its efforts.

The county plans to launch a pilot program in July that will create emergency plans for in-home support services patients. Skilled nursing facility officials are set to meet with PG&E in late June to discuss preparations. At the same time, the county will work with local agencies and partners to spread awareness of the outages to patients and residents.

"But we saw from the North Bay fires that the best way to protect ourselves and increase our resilience is from overall individual and neighborhood readiness," Santora said.

Marin General Hospital spokeswoman Jamie Maites said the hospital has been working with PG&E to prepare for the outages. The hospital has generators that will assure services are not disrupted, she said.

"Our backup generators are regularly tested and turn on instantaneously when there is a power outage. In addition, we have adequate fuel supplies onsite," Maites wrote in an email.

Novato police Capt. Jim Correa said the department has been coordinating with other local agencies and telecommunications entities to ensure that communications systems will function and that staff will know what to do when the power goes off.

"We'll do a lot of work behind the scenes for the first responders to be ready and have some plans in place, but it's critical that the community realizes that it may be without power for three to four days or longer," Correa said.

Other utilities also will be affected by the outages. Local water agencies such as Marin Municipal Water District won't be able to treat and pump water out to residents without power. Earlier this year, the district approved spending more than $1.2 million to rent about 25 portable generators as well as purchase a permanent backup generator at one of its treatment plants so that it can ensure residents -- and firefighters -- have access to water.

"We'll have crews out there moving them from one pump station to another to another," said Ben Horenstein, district general manager. "It's going to be a pretty massive effort in mobilization, but we're doing a tremendous amount of preparation and planning so we can respond accordingly."

Even with these efforts, Horenstein said it is possible that some areas of the county may need to rely on themselves to have a stock of potable water until the power is turned back on. The water district is expected to discuss plans for other water saving measures during these outages, such as curtailing irrigation.

"It is kind of a perfect storm that during the period where you have the highest demand and highest need for water is the time that PG&E may turn off power to our facilities," Horenstein said.

PG&E aims to provide residents a 48-hour notice of the planned shutoff with another update 24 hours later. But Horenstein said that in recent conversations with PG&E, there is no guarantee that this lead time will be consistent and that there could be times where no warning is provided.

Typically, the county has urged residents and agencies to prepared for about 72 hours without power, whether because of storms or earthquakes or other natural disasters, according county public information officer Laine Hendricks. But under PG&E's program, the outages can last longer even if the fire weather has passed as PG&E crews inspect equipment to ensure it's safe to turn back on.

"When that notice comes in, it's probably a little late to be thinking about what you're going to do to prepare yourself," Hendricks said.

------

PG&E Outage and Emergency Alerts

* Sign up for alerts of PG&E's planned power outages: www.pge.com/mywildfirealerts

* PG&E outage and preparedness tips: https://prepareforpowerdown.com/

* Sign up for Marin emergency notifications: https://www.marinsheriff.org/services/emergency-services/alert-marin

* For local Nixle alerts: http://www.nixle.com/

___

(c)2019 The Marin Independent Journal (Novato, Calif.)

Visit The Marin Independent Journal (Novato, Calif.) at www.marinij.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.