Pacific Gas & Electric is turning to a decidedly low-tech solution to keep its customers’ lights on for this year’s coming fire season: mobile diesel generators.
The bankrupt utility is struggling to secure its grid from causing more deadly wildfires and has been stymied in attempts to set up natural-gas-backed microgrids to power substations during fire-prevention blackouts. But California regulators are adamant that PG&E must find a more permanent and less costly and polluting backup plan in the years ahead — even if it’s not clear yet what form it may take.
On June 11, the California Public Utilities Commission plans to vote on a proposed decision that would greenlight PG&E’s plan to secure up to 450 megawatts of mobile generators to back up communities during public-safety power outage events this summer and fall.