Committee on the impact of wildfires on the electric grid. Atmakers are looking wildfire mitigation technology, Forest Management, and power system reliability. Good morning, everyone. The meeting will come to order. A lot going on this morning so i think we will have people popping in and out but we do have a pretty hard stop at 11 00 this morning with a series of votes. We are going to observe an actual 10 minute clock. This is the goal. To be able to hear from everyone this morning and have an opportunity for the very, very, very important conversations regarding this issue. We are here to discuss the impact of wildfires on the reliability of our electric rate and efforts to mitigate wildfire risk and increase grid resiliency. In recent years, devastating wildfires and electricity blackouts in california have drawn National Attention to the challenge of maintaining grid resiliency in the face of extreme conditions. Tragically, we remember last years camp fire, the deadliest and most destructive fire in california history, which incinerated the town of paradise, killed 85 people. State investigators determined that the fire was caused by degraded, 97yearold power lines during socalled fire weather, which consists of strong winds, low humidity, dry vegetation and heat. The camp fire was a sobering wakeup call on the inherent risk of maintaining thousands of miles of aboveground power lines across fireprone landscapes. It spurred california regulators and several of the states largest utilities to increase their use of Public Safety power shutoffs, or psps plans, as a precaution against possible wildfire ignition during high wind events. Intended as a measure of last resort, psps plans call for utilities to deenergize powerlines in extreme weather conditions and blackout large portions of their service territory. From june through november, at least nine psps events cut power for more than 3 million californians. For some, these blackouts lasted a few hours. For others, power went on for nearly six days. These blackouts occurred not only in the rugged terrain of Northern California, but also in the greater metro areas of san francisco, san diego, and los angeles county. Repeat scenarios could be with us for a very long time. According to the testimony that we will hear today, wildfire blackouts could he californias could be californias new normal for the next 10 to 30 years, or perhaps even longer. One would expect to see such Living Conditions in a developing country, but not in some of our most populated and prosperous places in the United States, and certainly not in a state with some of the highest electricity prices in the nation. But this challenge is not just limited to california. Dense visitation and hazard trees interfering with powerlines are not an uncommon cause of wildfires. Neither is degrading Energy Infrastructure. On a national basis, the u. S. Forest Service Estimates that more than 277 fires from 2017 to 2018 can be traced to powerlines. Several of the fires that merged into the 2016 Great Smoky Mountains wildfires were started by winddowned power lines. The Great Smoky Mountains wildfires were the deadliest in the eastern u. S. Since the great fires of 1947. Tree falling onto a registration line is expected because of the mckinley fire this summer in my home state of alaska, some fires north of anchorage are believed to be connected to powerline ignitions in a region that has some pretty high spruce bark beetle mortality. An investigation is still pending there, but a tree falling onto a distribution line is a suspected cause of the mckinley fire of this summer, which resulted in the loss of six homes. The danger in alaska, like elsewhere in the nation, is that powerlines are located near homes and schools and businesses. That is a fact. Climate change, drought, insect infestation and poor Forest Management have made landscapes more susceptible to fire, particularly in the west. As more people build homes in wild and urban interfaces or dispersed communities, the chance is for utility related wildfires are sure to increase. Congress has stepped in to ensure the federal government is not a roadblock to clearing dense visitation and hazard trees from utility rightsofway. We passed an act as part of the 2018 consolidated appropriations act which directs federal land managers to expedite the clearing of vegetation within 100 feet of powerline corridors on federal land. It is my understanding that both the department of the interior and the Forest Service are implementing that measure. Now we must turn our attention to what had begun to harden Energy Infrastructure and improve the resiliency in high fire risk areas during these extreme weather conditions. This is a complex problem that will require collaboration at all levels and partnerships with the electric industry. Thank you who have joined us this morning to provide important testimony. I thank colleagues for being here, and i will turn to my friend, senator manchin, for his comments. Sen. Manchin thank you very much, senator murkowski. Today will be the last meeting of a person who has been with me quite a long time in my committee. Shes been with me in my state office not the state office, but the d. C. Office. She was my chief counsel there and moved over when i became Ranking Member of this staff. Sarah now has two little babies and things in life changes times, and we are so sorry that she will not be on the committee or working in the committee or leading the staff, but she will always be near and dear to us and by her phone, and we dont want to let her escape too far. With that, sarah, i want to thank you for all your years of service. [applause] sen. Manchin senator murkowski, thank you for posting this holding this hearing today. Wildfires are a threat to Critical Infrastructure, including the electric rate, but electric grid, but as we have seen in several instances, a clement failures on the grid can also spark wildfires. This is especially true for western states. We have seen several catastrophic fires any california but this impacts Eastern States have seen some too. 1300 acres were burned in west virginia. No homes were damaged, but other communities across the country have not been so lucky. Over the last few years, california has been hit extremely hard by wildfires and the impacts have been truly devastating. Last year, the camp fire alone killed 40 people, destroyed thousands of homes in the town of paradise. I appreciate mr. Bill johnson, president of the pg e corporation, being here today. And being willing to talk about his companys understanding of the mistakes that were made, Lessons Learned, and the operational changes they are making to ensure this never happens again. Wildfires are increasing in intensity, size, and frequency, and we will need a new approach to mitigate their devastating impacts and ensure electricity infrastructure is not starting fires. They are also getting harder to control due to Climate Change, lack of Forest Management, and new Housing Developments in rural, fire prone areas. This is affecting millions of people. I look forward to hearing from our panel about technologies and Management Practices, and what Innovative Solutions are needed to reduce risk. The department of energy and our National Labs, including the one in my home state, are working on modernizing the electric grid to make it more resilient. We need to address the relationship between wildfires and the grid, in terms of wildfires impacting the grid and electricity infrastructure igniting wildfires. There is no silver bullet, but we can and should look to learn from utilities that have made their grid the most resilient to wildfires. This leads technologies to detect wildfires early, growing power lines, and deenergizing powerlines as a last resort. A last resort is shutting down the power, which pg e and other utilities have done proactively. Several times in recent months during unusually high winds. I can imagine how disruptive that was to the millions of customers and businesses that depend every day on electricity you provide, so i hope you will explain to us today why that was a step you took in those particular circumstances and how effective they were. I understand that during one of the pg e power shut offs, 218 instances of line damage were discovered, 24 of which would have likely started wildfires had you not taken precautionary actions. The shut off prevented several fires but it came at a great cost and raises the question, if we have to shut off the power, how can we do it in a way that causes the least harm to customers . Finally, i look forward to hearing from the witnesses on ways that congress can be helpful. I know we took a big step forward by including a provision in the 2018 omnibus bill to make it easier for utilities to do the required maintenance, especially for the small, Rural Electrical coops. I welcome your thoughts on additional actions we can take to make it easier to clean up an area after wildfires, including making use of some of the timber from trees killed by the fire before the timber rots. It makes no sense to me at all. We want to avoid the devastation caused by wildfires and have a reliable, resilient electric grid to power our homes and businesses. In the face of increasing wildfire risk, we need to do everything we can to manage and reduce these rising risks. I look forward to hearing from the witnesses and what they have to say on how to do that, so thank you, chairman murkowski, and i thank all our witnesses for coming and making an effort to be here today. Sen. Murkowski thank you, senator manchin. We will begin with our panel this morning. Thank you to each of you for being here, and the contributions that you will make to this very important discussion. The panel is going to be led to the panel is going to be led off by mr. Bill johnson. Mr. Johnson is ceo and president for pg e corporation. I know this has been a very, very difficult time for you, for all within pg e, the pg e family. It has been a significant challenge and i know that you have made every effort to be open and transparent as you deal with this and share the Lessons Learned, so we are appreciative of you being here this morning. Dr. Michael wara is also here, thank you. He is a Senior Research scholar at Stanford Woods Institute for the environment. Mr. Scott corwin is the executive director for the northwest Public Power Association we appreciate your contribution this morning. Carl imhoff is the manager for the electricity market sector at one of our fabulous National Labs at Pacific NorthwestNational Laboratory we are thankful you are here. The panel will be rounded off by dr. Russell, a professor and director at the Power System Automation Laboratory at the department of electrical and Computer Engineering at texas a m university. We appreciate you being here. We would ask you to keep your comments to about five minutes. Your full statements will be included as part of the record. And then we will have an opportunity for the back and forth. Mr. Johnson, welcome to the committee. Mr. Johnson thank you so much, good morning. I am bill johnson, president and ceo of the pg e corporation. I appreciate the committees interest in wildfires and the impacts to electric grid reliability and resilience. As has been mentioned, we have seen a dramatic increase in wildfires as a result of a changing climate. Which in terms had a dramatic effect on our electric system and how we operate it. Just seven years ago, 15 of pg es service area was designated as having elevated fire risk. That number is over 50 today and will continue to grow, so in seven years, the risk of fire more than tripled for our service area in Northern California. California has also experienced its most destructive wildfires in the last two years and its deadliest. Pg e is deeply sorry for the role our equipment had in those fires and the losses that occurred because of them. We are taking action to prevent it from ever happening again. We invested over 30 billion dollars in our electric system over the last decade, including more than 3 billion in Vegetation Management, and today we are taking that a step further by increasing Vegetation Management in high risk areas, incorporating analytical and predictive capabilities, and expanding this go and and expanding the scope and intrusiveness of our inspection processes. This year, we inspected every element of our electric system within high threat fire areas, examining almost 730,000 structures in 25 million discrete related components in about four months. We deployed 600 weather stations and 130 High Resolution cameras across our service area to bolster Situational Awareness and Emergency Response. Using satellite data and modeling techniques to predict wildfire spread and behavior, and we are hardening our system in those areas where the fire threat is highest by installing stronger and more resilient polls and covered lines, as well as undergrounding. This year we took the step of intentionally turning off power for safety during a string of severe wind events, where we saw 100 mileperhour winds onshore in Northern California area this decision affected many of our customers, caused them disruption and hardship, even as it succeeded in its goal of protecting human life. The nature of this risk and potential consequences of it requires to plan, operate, and maintain our systems differently than we ever have. This will require a focus on resilience as well as reliability. That is one of the lessons here that will be applicable beyond california, and the committee has noted this. The resilience and reliability are related, but they are distinct concepts. Our customers, including Critical Infrastructure and first responders, have long depended on Reliable Service. But today more than ever, our ability to provide Reliable Service depends on the comprehensive societal approach to resilience. Congress addressed reliability through section 215 of the federal power act nearly 15 years ago, and congress could address resilience now through potential actions that include doe tong deal we develop a framework, increase eligibility and funding for Energy Resistance and Community Resilience programs, support research and development of new technologies and forwardlooking data, and promoting publicprivate partnerships to establish voluntary resilience zones and building codes and standards. Specific to addressing the wildfire threat, we believe that the federal government should continue its focus on funding Forest Management and Fire Suppression activities, implementing forest and Vegetation Management policies advanced by senator daines and congressman schrader and ensuring access to federal lands and authorizing federal agencies to share data. We know that addressing this risk must start with our own operations, meaning we are looking to mitigate this dynamic risk affecting this company. Let me conclude by saying that the dna remains committed to doing everything in our power to build a better and safer future for all. That is what our customers deserve. Thank you for the opportunity. Sen. Murkowski thank you, mr. Johnson. Dr. Wara, welcome. [inaudible] oh, sorry. Dr. Wara senator murkowski, senator manchin, thank you for having me before the committee to discuss this issue. There are real present threats demonstrated by the wildfires. At least in the california context, these raise significant questions how and if elements of the Transmission Systems across high threat areas should be operated during increasingly common and increasingly dangerous high wind events. As bill johnson just discussed, pg e has faced enormous threats to its system and has really for the first time this year used widespread Public Safety power shut offs as a tool to create safety, and as you mentioned in your opening remarks, this is not just an issue for rural or remote parks of california, but directly impacts millions of people in the metro areas in california as well. The use of psps has prevented wildfire and caused widespread disruption to families and businesses, especially in Northern California. Psps events, although they dramatically improve safety, are very costly to the health of the economy, especially in smaller communities. My assessment, using tools developed by the Lawrence Berkeley laboratory, indicates that psps events in 2019 likely cost customers more than 10 billion. Failure of transmission components during high wind is not a new phenomenon in california. Indeed, the wildfire that spelled the birth of modern approaches in 2007, the witch fire and san diego county, was caused by sdg e transmission line failure. Similarly, the camp fire was ignited by