(Bloomberg) -- Edison International’s decision to leave some Los Angeles power lines operating during a historic windstorm last week is under scrutiny as an investigation into the city’s devastating wildfires gathers pace.
Three lawsuits filed against the company’s Southern California Edison utility cite its failure to de-energize all electrical equipment in Eaton Canyon, the northern LA locale where the deadly Eaton Fire is believed to have started Jan. 7.
Californian power providers have grown accustomed to shutting off electricity amid dry and windy conditions after years of deadly fires caused by sparks from malfunctioning or poorly maintained infrastructure.
Yet Edison has acknowledged that its transmission lines near the start of the Eaton fire were energized, but says no issues were detected. Data also show consumers immediately west of the ignition site were still receiving power just before the blaze started, despite advance warnings of a life-threatening and destructive Santa Ana wind event.
“Utilities have sprawling networks and it can be difficult to keep track of every single asset as severe conditions unfold,” said Mishal Thadani, co-founder and chief executive officer of Rhizome, which uses artificial intelligence to help utilities manage climate risks.
Investigators have yet to determine the cause of the Eaton Fire, which has affected more than 14,000 acres and led to at least 15 fatalities. It was still burning Tuesday.
Edison’s shares have fallen 24% since the Eaton Fire and other major conflagrations first broke out in LA. Its bonds have also slumped.
Even though preemptive power shutoffs is a practice pioneered by Californian utilities, it’s far less common for them to turn off transmission lines versus more local distribution lines, according to Michael Wara, a utility wildfire expert and director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program at Stanford University.
“The transmission lines are larger and stronger and can operate safely at higher wind speeds,” Edison Chief Executive Officer Pedro Pizarro said on Bloomberg Television Monday.
De-energizing a transmission line can lead to much greater disruption. Limited power generation within Southern California also means the region relies on imported electricity, which arrives via transmission lines that transverse mountains, Wara said.
“This is sort of Monday morning quarterbacking on a particular line, where Edison would have had to make multiple decisions,” Wara said.
Pizarro confirmed Edison switched off distribution lines close to the ignition site two hours before the Eaton Fire began while keeping high-voltage lines operational. He said initial data show no issues on lines in the area in the period leading up to the fire or at the moment it started.
“We have not seen any of the signatures that we typically see when a line causes a fire,” he said. The company declined to make further comment Tuesday.
Edison also told regulators last week that investigators are looking at whether its transmission equipment was involved in the ignition of the smaller Hurst Fire near San Fernando. It said a downed conductor was discovered at a tower on the high-voltage Eagle Rock-Sylmar circuit, but it was unclear if the damage occurred before or after the start of the fire.
California’s most destructive wildfire was 2018’s Camp Fire, which leveled the town of Paradise and killed 85 people. It started amid high winds after the failure of an almost 100-year-old suspension hook that was holding a PG&E Corp. transmission line. The 2019 Kincade Fire, which destroyed over 300 structures in Sonoma County, began after winds broke a cable on a PG&E transmission line.
California Independent System Operator, the state grid operator, has been coordinating with utilities throughout the LA wildfire event. The grid has remained stable and CAISO doesn’t anticipate reliability issues or supply shortages in coming days, spokeswoman Anne Gonzales said.
Based on weather conditions, utilities will inform CAISO of any potential safety shutoffs on either local distribution lines or higher-voltage transmission lines 48 to 72 hours in advance, Gonzales added. She declined to comment on whether Edison notified CAISO of any potential outages as a safety precaution.
Looking beyond the disaster, there will be many ways to employ technology to improve operational planning related to fire risks, for example using AI and video, said Allison Clements, a former federal energy regulator and principal of 804 Advisory.
“People have been working hard for the last 10 years on the fire risk in the West,” she said. “We have to double and triple down and figure out ways to move as quickly as the challenges demand.”
Her comments were echoed by Scott Strenfel, a senior director of wildfire risk at PG&E and leader of the company’s meteorology operations. PG&E’s service area includes regions prone to seasonal Santa Ana and Diablo winds, which can quickly turn a spark into a fast-spreading blaze. While pre-emptive shutoffs have likely prevented fires during extreme wind events, they’re not a failsafe strategy, he said,
Utilities have to find a “Goldilocks zone of executing public safety power shutoffs in a way that is somewhat sustainable,” he said Tuesday at the American Meteorological Society’s annual meeting in New Orleans.
--With assistance from Lauren Rosenthal.
(Updates with PG&E employee’s comment in last two paragraphs.)
