Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) customers cannot sue the utility for losses stemming from power shutoffs it executed in 2019 to prevent wildfires, the California Supreme Court has ruled.
In the fall of 2019, PG&E undertook a series of power shutoffs, which it calls “Public Safety Power Shutoffs” (PSPS), to reduce the risk of wildfire from extreme weather conditions. The plaintiff in the case, a California resident and PG&E customer, alleged that the power shutoffs were only needed due to PG&E’s negligence in maintaining its power grid over the past several decades. The plaintiff filed a lawsuit in 2019 seeking $2.5 billion in damages for affected PG&E customers in California.
The shutoffs caused the plaintiff and other customers to go”many days” without power, the suit said, and thus the plaintiff sought compensation for “loss of habitability of their dwellings, loss of food items in their refrigerators, expenses for alternative means of lighting and power, . . . loss of cell phone connectivity, dangerous dark conditions, lack of running water, and loss of productivity and business.”
In siding with PG&E, the California Supreme Court cited Public Utilities Code section 1759, which “bars actions that would interfere with the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) in the performance of its official duties.” By allowing the suit, the Court said it “would interfere with the PUC’s comprehensive regulatory and supervisory authority over PSPS.”
PG&E faced increased regulatory pressure after its equipment was found responsible for a series of wildfires in Northern California, including the 2020 fire which resulted in the deaths of four people and destroyed hundreds of houses. California’s Public Utilities Commission found that PG&E was neglectful in its maintenance of the grid.
This year, the utility deployed new technologies, including a remotely operated controlled-burn system, drones, and remote microgrids, intended to better detect and suppress wildfires.
Additionally, PG&E recently received approval to raise rates nearly 13% on January 1, 2024 to pay for continued safety investments, including undergrounding, replacing distribution pipelines, and increasing electric capacity.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved PG&E’s 2023-2026 General Rate Case (GRC). More than 85%of PG&E’s proposed increase, originally submitted in June 2021, was to reduce risk in the utility’s gas and electric operations.
As part of the GRC, the CPUC approved placing 1,230 miles of powerlines underground in PG&E’s highest fire-risk areas. Undergrounding is a permanent risk reduction that PG&E says eliminates nearly 98% of the risk of wildfire ignition from electrical equipment, reduces the need for safety-related power shutoffs, and saves money on reduced annual tree trimming and overhead line maintenance costs.
Safety and reliability investments funded by the GRC include:
- Undergrounding 1,230 miles of powerlines in PG&E’s highest fire-risk areas. It is one of PG&E’s multiple layers of protection that the utility says have reduced wildfire risk from company equipment by 94 percent.
- Increasing electric capacity to support the state’s transportation electrification, affordable housing and economic development goals. Additional electric system investments include grid work to support widespread adoption of electric vehicles to reduce climate change impacts and improve air quality; exploring technologies to use electric vehicles and other energy storage; and microgrid advancements to help improve grid resiliency during extreme weather and peak-energy demand periods.
