PG&E says a proposed decision from California regulators could gut its ambitious plan to bury thousands of miles of power lines in wildfire-prone areas, slashing the scope of the project from 5,000 miles down to as few as 1,100. The utility's vice president of undergrounding and system hardening, Matt Pender, is the source of that 1,100-mile figure, and the California Public Utilities Commission has not finalized its decision.
According to CBS News, the proposed CPUC decision could scale back PG&E's plans to bury power lines in high fire-risk areas, and the commission is weighing additional rules for utilities seeking to underground their infrastructure. PG&E's current plan calls for burying 5,000 miles of power lines across Northern and Central California over the next decade, per the same report.
What SB 884 Set Up
The framework at the center of the dispute traces back to Senate Bill 884, which California lawmakers passed in 2022. The legislation created an approval process allowing utility companies to submit plans to bury power lines specifically in wildfire high-risk areas, and the California Public Utilities Commission has said the bill directed it to establish an expedited program for undergrounding electric distribution infrastructure by large electric utilities, according to a filing from the California Public Utilities Commission. Under the bill's text, a participating utility would submit an undergrounding plan covering specified projects in Tier 2 or 3 high fire-threat districts or rebuild areas, with the state's Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety required to approve or deny that plan within nine months, according to California Legislative Information.
The proposed decision now under consideration would prioritize high fire-risk areas and require comparison of undergrounding with cost-effective alternatives, such as protective coverings for overhead lines, the station's report notes. That comparison requirement could be a key factor in any reduction to PG&E's mileage target, though the full reasoning behind the proposed decision has not been detailed publicly.
PG&E Defends the Bigger Build-Out
Pender pushed back on the idea that a smaller near-term investment makes sense, telling reporters, “We appreciate there is a desire to see if a lower level of investment is appropriate in the near term, but we believe the plan we put forward is very prudent one for protecting communities, improving reliability and supporting reliability for the long term.” He has argued that undergrounding is the most efficient and cost-effective long-term way to reduce wildfire risk despite its steep upfront costs, per the same account.
PG&E separately describes its own longer-range undergrounding framework as covering the years 2028 through 2037, targeting customers in the state's highest-risk areas, according to PG&E. That plan is still awaiting Phase 1 approval from the California Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety, and PG&E says it will file a separate application with the CPUC seeking approval of the plan's costs and funding only after that safety approval comes through. The utility also says it anticipates completing nearly 1,900 miles of wildfire-safety undergrounding work by the end of 2027, and that moving lines underground permanently reduces wildfire risk on those lines by 98%, according to the company.
The Price Tag and the Vote
PG&E's plan would cost about $16 billion and would add roughly $9 to the average customer's monthly bill, according to PG&E. The California Public Utilities Commission is scheduled to vote on the proposed decision on November 19, according to PG&E, and the proposal states that the item will be added to the commission's agenda 10 days before that scheduled vote.
This is not the first time regulators have trimmed PG&E's undergrounding ambitions. A November 2023 CPUC decision allowed for 1,230 miles of undergrounding, in addition to installing covered conductors — a form of insulation for above-ground lines — on 778 miles over four years, a figure that the CPUC Public Advocates Office noted was lower in both miles and budget than what PG&E had requested at the time. Statewide, about 33% of California's 220,590 miles of distribution lines are currently underground, according to the California Public Utilities Commission. CBS News Sacramento reached out to the CPUC for more information on the proposed decision.
