SUBSCRIBER ONLY: PG&E monthly bills might hop higher due to power line burial plan
Source: Mercury News | By George Avalos
All of this, however, could squeeze PG&E customers who already must endure fast-rising monthly bills, warned Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, or TURN. The full state PUC is expected to make a final decision by year’s end on the rate case.
“We have a real affordability crisis for utility costs,” Toney said. “One of the biggest cost drivers is this massive expense for burying 10,000 miles of PG&E power lines.”
TURN, a consumer group, has a straightforward plan for power line safety: insulate the lines.
PG&E customers could greatly benefit from the insulation of power lines rather than a program to bury them underground, in TURN’s view.
“Insulated lines are completed much more quickly than burying the lines and at a fraction of the cost,” Toney said. “You are not waiting 10 to 20 years to get the safety you need. You are doing it within a few years.”
The cost of insulation of overhead lines would be about $800,000 a mile, Toney estimated. The cost to bury 10,000 miles of PG&E power lines is roughly $3.7 million to $5.2 million a mile, he added.
Toney, however, notes that Southern California Edison, the principal provider of electricity services in sprawling Los Angeles County and nearby regions, has embarked on a quest to insulate 8,000 miles of overhead power lines, apparently preferring that approach to bury lines.
“Covered conductor is a critical tool to quickly mitigate the threat of wildfires that could be caused by debris blowing into power lines. It helps keep our communities safe,” Steve Powell, Edison’s chief executive officer, stated in July 2022 in a prepared release.
“We support wildfire safety,” Toney said. “We don’t want bare wires all over the place.”
Toney believes that the PG&E power line burial program might oblige the company’s customers to help line the pockets of wealthy investors on Wall Street.
“PG&E’s scheme to underground power lines is the most expensive and most costly method of tackling this challenge,” Toney said. “But it does provide Wall Street investors with a $60 billion gift, paid for by consumers.”
