Order. Last hearing of the year there is a lot going on this morning so i think we will have people popping in and out but we do have a pretty hard to sto stop 0 this morning a series of votes beginning at 11 and we are going to observe an actual ten minute clock. We are going to be able to have an opportunity for the very, very important conversations this issue. We are here to discuss the impact of wildfires on the reliability of the electric grid iand efforts to mitigate the rik and the grid recently and see. In recent years devastating wildfires and relate tobaccorelated hadron National Attention to the great idsiliency in the face of extreme conditions. Weve remember last yearss campfireem at the deadliest andt destructive in california hstory whichir incinerated the town of paradise and killed 85 inpeople. They determined it was caused by degraded 97yearold powerlines and the strong wind winds, low humidity, drive vegetation and heat. If it is a wakeup call on the inherent risk of maintaining thousands of miles of aboveground power lines across fire prone landscapes. The california regulators in several of the states largest utilities to increase the use of Public Safetyre public shutoffss a precaution against possible wildfire during the high wind events. The measure of last resort plans call for utilities to de energize powerlines in extreme weather conditions and Service Territories. From june through november at least nine cuts power for more than 3 million californians. For some, they lost a few hours and for others it went on for nearly six days. Theyly occurred 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 it could be the new normal for the next ten to 30 years or even longer. One would expect to see the Living Conditions and a developing country thats no bun some of the most populated places here in the unite United States, certainly not in the state with some of the highest electricity prices iner the natn that its not just limited to california. Its not an uncommon cause of wildfires or is the Energy Infrastructure. The National Basis the Forest Service estimates that more than 277 fires from 2017 to 2018 can be traced to powerlines. Several that emerge to the 2016 Great Smoky Mountains wild fires were started by dowd, wind, downed power lines. The Great Smoky Mountains wild fires were the deadliest in the u. S. Since the great fires of 1947. In my own state of alaska in the valley north of anchorage are believed to be connected to power line conditions in the region that has the high mortality the powerlines are necessarily located near homes and schools and businesses thatt is just the fact. Climate a change from the draft, infestation and poor management have made the landscapes more susceptible particularly in the west as more people build homes in the interface or dispersed communities the chances for utility related wildfires are sure to increase. Ital isnt a roadblock from the utility rights of ways. In 2018 we passed the reliability and t Forest Protection act as a part of the 2018 consolidated appropriations act. Its my understandin understandf the department of the interiordi and Forest Service are now implementing that important measure. Now we must turn our attention to what can be done to harden the Energy Infrastructure and improve the resiliency of the grid in th the areas in extreme weather conditions. This is a complex problem that is going to require cooperation at all levels of partnership with the electric industry. I think the colleagues for being here a and i will now turn to my friend senator manchin for his comments before we begin with the panel. Before i could Opening Statements, i want to take aan moment of personal time here if i can. Today will be the last meeting of a p person whos been with me quite a long time and my committee. Shes been with me in my state office, not the state office, that my dbut my dc office, she y chief counsel and moved when i became the Ranking Member is the director of our Ranking Member staff and it did turn this job. She has a new little babies and shshe has two little babies and things in life change sometimes and wehi are just so sorry that she wont be on the committee or leaving the staff that she will always be near and dearff to us and by her phone and we are not going to let her escape to park. With that i want to thank you forwi all of your years of service. [applause] thank you for holding the hearing today on the relationship between wildfires and the electric grid. Its a threat to Critical Infrastructure including the electric grid but as weve seen in several instances, equipment failures can also sparked wildfires. Spark wildfires. This is true for western states. Weve seen several catastrophic fires that this impacts eastern states, too and my home state hasnt been exempt. Over thanksgiving weekend it earned 1300 acres in West Virginia and no homes were damaged but other communities across the country hasnt been so lucky. Over the last few years, california has been extremely hit hard by wildfires and the impacts have been devastating. Last year thate killed 85 people and destroyed 14,000 homes in the town of paradise. I appreciate mr. Bill johnson of thet corporation being here tody and willingness to talk about his companys understanding of the mistakes that were made, Lessons Learned and operational changes they are making to ensure this never happens again. Wildfires are increasing in intensity, size and frequency of your going to need a new approach to mitigate the devastating impacts and electricity infrastructure isnt starting the fires. They also are getting harder to control due to Climate Change, lack of force management and new housingg developments in these areas. This is affecting millions of people. I look forward to hearing from the panel about the Available Technology and Management Practices and what innovative needed to do this can cause. The department of energy labs in my home state are working on modernizing the electric grid to make it more resilient. We need to make sure its addressing the relationship between wildfires and the grip of hundredgreatboth in terms ofs impacting the grid and also electricity infrastructure igniting wildfires. There is no Silver Bullet that we can anbut wecan and should ln from the utilities that have made the greatest and most recentlrecently and could wildf. This goes for maintenance and inspection practices, installations of new and improved technologies to detect problems early, Risk Mitigation of tree trimming or growing pattern to be the powerlines and the advertising them as illustrious as. Of course the last resort is shutting off the power and other utilities have been done proactively several times in recent months duringngro unusuay high when. I can imagine how disruptive the plus to the millions of customers and businesses that depend the threeday on electricity and i hope that youve explained to us today why that is the step you took in this particular circumstance and how effective they were. I understand during one of the power shut off scott 218 instances of wind damage were discovered, 24 of which would have likely started wildfires if you had taken precautionary practions, so if we have prevend several but it also came at a utgreat 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 and finally i look forward to hearing from the witnesses about ways that congress can be helpful. I know we took a big step forward by including the provisioa provisionin the 2018 e it easier for utilities to the required maintenance especially for the smaller Rural Electrical coops but i welcome your thoughts on additional actions we can take to make it easier to clean up an area after wildfire including using their timber tre by the fires before it rots. It makes no sense to me at all. So, we want to avoid devastation caused by wildfires and have a reliable resilient to gri grid r our homes and the ss and in the face of increasing wildfire risk, we need to do everything we can to manage to reduce the rising risks. I look forward to hearing from the witnesses and what they have to say about how to do that, so thank you and i think all the witnesses for being here today. Thank you senator. We will begin with our panelists this morning again thank you to each of you for being here and the contributions that you will make to this important discussion. Its going to be led by mr. Bill johnson. Mr. Johnson is the ceo and president for pg e corp. I know that this has been a very difficult time for you and for all within the pg in the 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 very appreciative you are here with us this morning. Doctor michael was also here ass a Senior Research scholar m at stem for Blood Institute for the environment, we thank you. Mr. Scott corwin is the executive director foexecutive e northwest public power association. Appreciate your contribution this morning. Carl inhofe is the manager for the electricity market sector at one of our fabulous National Labs at Pacific Northwest national laboratory. We are thankful you are here and the panel will be rounded out by doctor don russell, doctor russell is a professor and director of the Power System Automation Laboratory at the department of electrical and Computer Engineering at texas a and m. University, so we appreciate you being here we would ask you to keep your comments to about five minutes into his defense will be included as a part of the record. Welcome to the committee. Thank you so much and good morning. I am bill johnson president and ceo of Pg Corporation today i appreciateat the invitation to e year ended thbehere and at the s interest in wildfires and the impact the reliability and resilience. As it has beenn mentioned, in te west we have seen a dramatic increase in wildfire threat as the result of a changing climate which interns have a dramatic effect on the electric system andd how we operate. Just seven years ago, 15 of the pg in the service area was designated as having elevated fire risk and its over 50 today and will continue to grow so in seven years the risk of fire more than tripled for our northernrea of california. Its also experienced the most destructive wildfires in the past two years and its deadliest. Pg and e and he is deeply sorryr the role that our equipment had in those fires and the losses that occurred t because of them and wect are taking action to prevent it from ever happening again. We invested over 3 billion our electric system over the i last decade including more than 3 million Vegetation Management and today we are taking that work a step further byod increasing Vegetation Management in the high risk areas and incorporating analytical predictive capabilities and expanding the scope and intrusiveness of the process. This year every element of the system within the high threat wifire areas examining almost 730,000 structures and 25 million discrete related components and about four months. We deployed 600 weather stations, 130 highresolution cameras across theth service ara to bolster the Situational Awareness and Emergency Response. We are using satellite data and modeling techniquess to produce wildfire spread behavior and we are hardening the system in those areas where the threat is highest by installing stronger and more resilient polls and covered lines as well asel underground in. This year we took the unprecedented step of intentionally turning up during a string of events where we saw 200mile per hour winds onshore in Northern California and this decision affected millions of our customers, cause disruption and hardshicaused disruptionandt succeeded in its goal of protecting c human lives. Its the nature of this had the potential consequences require us to plan, operate and maintain the systems differently than we ever have and this will require focus on resilience as well as reliability and that is where the lessons here are beyond california and the committee has already noted this the resilience and reliability are related but they are distinct. Customers include Critical InfrastructureFirst Responders have long depended on Reliable Service. But today more than ever the ability to provide Reliable Service depends on the comprehensive societal approach to the resilience. Congress addressed reliability for section 215 of the federal power act nearly 15 years ago and can address resilience out the potential actions that include developing a framework and process for economic costbenefit analysis come increased eligibility of funding for existing Energy Assistance and Community Resilience programs, support research and development of new technologies and forwardlooking data and promoting publicprivate partnerships to establish voluntary resilience building codesps and standards. Specific to addressing the wildfire threat we believe the federal government should continue its focus on funding Forest ManagementFire Suppression activities, implement it firstes and Vegetation Management policies insuring access to federal land for prevention and response and authorizing federal agencies to share satellite data. We know that addressing this risk must start with us and our own operations and that is why we are focused on the safety and riskio based approach to the ris facing the company and industry and let me conclude by saying that we remain committed to doing everything in our power to build a better and safer future for all, that is what our customers deserve and thank you for the opportunity. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you very much for having me before the committee to discussh this issue. There are present threats presented by wildfire in at least in the california context they raise significant questions regarding how a bishop be obligated during increasingly common and a dangerous drive highway and events. As bill johnson just discussed, pg and e. Has faced enormous threats to its system and has for the first time this year used widespread safety shutoffs as a tool to create safety and as you mentioned in your opening remarks, this isnt just an issue for the role or remote parts of california that directly impacts millions of people in the natural areas of california as well. The use is both preventive and causing widespread disruption to families and businesses in Northern California. Though they do, they are costly especially in smaller llcommunities. My estimate is developed by the laboratory and indicates the event of 2019 cost customers more than 10 billion. Failure of transmission components isnt a new phenomenon california. It has modern approaches to managing utility called for by the risk in 2007 which the firen San Diego County was caused by the transmission line failure. Similarly the camp fire was ignited by failure of the transmission line and this year and perhaps most concerning of all failure of a jumper appears to have caused the fire. While it was superbly managed by the administration after the commission that could have resulted in property loss at least as large as the Thompson Camp fires that came before it. In addition there is at least a suggestion that two fires in Southern California were potentially cost by the mission wsystem failures this year. I would emphasize that the 2019 fires are still very much under investigation. We dont fully understand the cause but there is a strong suggestion of vulnerability in the system. Prior to thisli year preemptiveo the assets it was relatively limited mostly it involved us voltage transmission lines that were much older and the failure that we observed this year indicate that even the higher voltage line that provide reliability may be vulnerable during the high wind event. It would seem prudent based on the experience to consider including all of the lines perhaps except the highest voltage lines in the particles and that has potentially significant ramifications for the blog syste book system relin california and infected on these areas of customers. Currently, california regulators and utilities are engaged in examinationn of inspection taotocols to understand why they are occurring. The tower that may have caused the fire t was inspected at leat four times overt the last 24 months, and yet it failed and we need to understand why and what mitigating actions we can take to ensure both system reliabilityy is maintained even through these events. All this raises questions about how to approach the maintenance and operations moving forward. Traditionallyni some risk in mechanical failur