PG&E found broken equipment near origin of massive Kincade Fire

By Aja Seldon, Duncan Sinfield and Simone Aponte | KTVU-TV Fox 2

Published October 24

Geyserville, Calif. (KTVU) - Pacific Gas and Electric said it became aware Wednesday night that there was an equipment failure on a high voltage transmission line near where the Kincade Fire sparked, according to an incident report the San Francisco-based utility submitted to the California Public Utilities Commission Thursday.

Cal Fire also found a broken piece of equipment on the same tower. According to preliminary information from PG&E, the transmission tower had a broken jumper cable that was found around 9:20 p.m. Wednesday night in Geyserville. The Kincade Fire ignited roughly 10 minutes later. The fire quickly spread, growing to 10,000 acres and forcing thousands of residents to flee their homes.

The utility says the transmission level outage on the power line relayed and did not reclose.

By Thursday evening, at a 7 p.m. news conference Cal Fire and Sonoma County Sheriff's Office officials said the fire had grown to 16,000 acres and was 5% contained. 49 structures have been destroyed, but there have been no reported deaths.

PG&E filed the preliminary report with the CPUC the following day around 11:30 a.m.

The electric company confirmed Thursday around 5 p.m. that power along the transmission lines in that section of Sonoma County was not turned off because wind-speeds didn't reach high enough levels to trigger its planned shutoff protocol. PG&E says the wind speeds of concern for transmission lines are higher than those for lines that distribute power.

The exact cause of the Kincade Fire has not been determined and PG&E's findings don't indicate the fire was a result of an issue on its transmission lines, the utility's CEO William Johnson said at a press conference in response to the report.

He added, "We reported our findings to the regulator and are sharing it with you out of a sense of transparency."

The origin of the fire is still unknown.

October24,2019Electric Incident ReportFiled with CPUC in Response to Kincade Fire SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.—Today, Pacific Gas andElectric Company (PG&E) filed an Electric Incident Report with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC)related to the Kincade Fire. Yesterday by 3 p.m., PG&E had conducted a Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) and turned off the power for safety to approximately 27,837 customers in Sonoma County, including Geyserville and the surrounding area. PG&Ecrews have been on the ground since last night supporting CAL FIRE'sefforts to fight the KincadeFire and make the area safe.As part of the PSPS,PG&E distribution lines in theseareas were deenergized. Following PG&E's established PSPS protocolsand procedures, transmission linesin theseareasremained energized.Those transmissionlines were notdeenergized becauseforecast weather conditions, particularlywind speeds, did not trigger the PSPS protocol.The wind speeds of concern for transmission lines are higher thanthose for distribution.PG&E's report noted that at approximately 9:20 p.m. on October 23, 2019, PG&Ebecame aware of a transmission level outage on the Geysers #9 Lakeville 230kV line when theline relayed and did not reclose, deenergizingthe line.At approximately 7:30 a.m. on October 24, 2019, a responding PG&E troubleman patrolling the Geysers #9 Lakeville 230 kVlineobserved that the California Department of Forestryand Fire Protection(CALFIRE)had taped off the area around the base of transmission tower 001/006in the areaof the Kincade Fire.The transmissiontowernoted above was inspected earlier thisyear aspart of PG&E's WildfireSafety Inspection Program.On site CAL FIRE personnel brought to the troubleman's attention what appeared to be a broken jumper on the sametower.This information is preliminary,and PG&E is continuingto investigate. About PG&EPacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation(NYSE:PCG), is one of the largest combined natural gas and electric energy companiesin the United States. Based in San Francisco, with morethan 20,000 employees, the company delivers someof the nation's cleanest energy to nearly 16million people in Northern and Central California. For more information, visit www.pge.com/and www.pge.com/en/about/newsroom/index.page.

Source: https://www.ktvu.com/news/pge-found-broken-equipment-near-origin-of-massive-kincaid-fire