PG&E Line Being Probed Wasn’t Part of Power Shutoff (Correct)

PG&E Corp.’s power line being investigated as the possible source of a wildfire that killed four people in Northern California wasn’t included in the portion of its grid that the utility shut down in anticipation of windy, dangerous conditions.

PG&E also reported Monday that it while it has done routine vegetation management in recent years in the area of the September Zogg Fire, the company’s records don’t indicate there was a separate inspection in 2019 for dead and dying trees known as a “catastrophic event” patrol.

The disclosures were made in response to the federal judge overseeing the company’s criminal probation, who demanded the information as part of his inquiry into the role PG&E’s equipment may have played in igniting the blaze. It burned more than 56,000 acres in Shasta County, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of San Francisco.

PG&E previously said its records indicated that its equipment recorded alarms and other activity related to a power line in an area where the Zogg fire began and near the time of its ignition. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire, removed some of the utility’s equipment in its probe of the Zogg Fire. It hasn’t yet determined a cause of the fire.

In its filing, PG&E said “no single factor” determines when it shuts down power lines. Generally, it explained, they require sustained winds above 25 mph and gusts above in excess of approximately 45 mph. When the Zogg Fire started, PG&E’s two nearest weather stations -- about 3.6 miles and 4.7 miles from the “area of interest” -- recorded sustained winds of less than 15 mph and gusts of between 23 mph and 28 mph, according to the filing.

PG&E shares fell 2.2% Monday, closing at $10.03. The S&P 500 Index decreased 1.9%.

Read More: Southern California Blaze Routs Thousands as Winds Rage

Also in Monday’s filing, PG&E told U.S. District Judge William Alsup that Michael Lewis, an interim president for electric operations, approved the “final event scope” for the windy conditions on Sept. 27 that led to a power shutoff to prevent the utility’s equipment from causing fires.

The utility explained that there was no decision to leave the particular power line energized. Rather, it was not within the circuit of lines that were shut off. PG&E also provided Alsup with names of the employees who advised Lewis, but that information was in a separate filing sealed from public view.

The company emerged from bankruptcy on July 1, having agreed to pay $25.5 billion to settle damage claims from a series of deadly blazes blamed on its equipment. It also pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter over a 2018 fire, the deadliest corporate crime in U.S. history.

The case is U.S. v. PG&E, 14-cr-00175, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).

(Deletes reference to PG&E cutting power in area of fire in fourth paragraph.)

--With assistance from David R. Baker and Mark Chediak.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Joel Rosenblatt in San Francisco at jrosenblatt@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net;
Joe Ryan at jryan173@bloomberg.net

Peter Blumberg, Joe Schneider

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