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HomeMy WebLinkAbout14 Update on PSOM and Mitigation AGENDA ITEM #14 Page 1 of 5 MEETING DATE: July 21, 2021 TO: Board of Directors FROM: Steven Poncelet, Public Information and Strategic Affairs Director SUBJECT: Update on NV Energy’s PSOM Wildfire Safety Power Outages and District Response APPROVED BY______________________________ Brian C. Wright, General Manager RECOMMENDATION: Provide input to staff. BACKGROUND: The District has been responding to the catastrophic wildfires in California and across the west for many years. This includes expanding the District’s vegetation management budget from $350,000 in 2018 to $1,500,000 in 2021. The District also, in response to Senate Bill (SB) 901, developed a Wildfire Mitigation Plan (WMP) in 2019 with updates in 2020 and 2021. The District’s initial WMP was submitted to the State of California, audited by a third party expert, and was found to meet the intent of SB 901. The District’s most recent WMP in 2021 was submitted to the newly formed California Wildfire Advisory Safety Board. The District’s WMP details what the District is doing and is planning to do harden our electric distribution system and respond to the risk of District infrastructure starting a catastrophic wildfire in Truckee. It should be noted that the District, like all of California’s Public Owned Utilities (POUs), chose not to implement a Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) program to deenergize during extreme wildfire danger, such as those implemented by PG&E and other investor owned utilities (IOUs). This decision was based primarily on several considerations, including: The District’s overhead electric system is built to a ‘Heavy Loading’ District standard to address Truckee’s harsh winters (Heavy snow/ice and 100+ MPH winds); the District’s overhead electric system is not typically at risk during extreme wildfire danger (40-50+ MPH winds typically); the vast majority of historic wildfires in Truckee have been caused by either humans or lightening; and the risks to emergency response and public health/safety during an extended power outage are fare greater than the risks of the District’s overhead electric equipment starting a catastrophic wildfire. Page 2 of 5 The District, in addition to the above efforts of the Electric Utility, has taken additional steps to respond to and be prepared for wildfire season. This includes making the water system more resilient to power outages by installing back-up generators at critical water facilities and maintaining defensible space on properties owned by the District. New Information: In mid-May 2021, District staff were informed by NV Energy that they were expanding their existing wildfire safety outages program, called Public Safety Outage Management (PSOM), to include all of Truckee and the surrounding areas. The District is a public power provider dependent upon the transmission of electricity from NV Energy. NV Energy has stated PSOM will be similar to PG&E PSPS with expectations that outages will last from one to many days. The length of wildfire safety outages is longer due to the requirement that both NV Energy and the District visually inspect their entire electric system impacted by outage before safely restoring power. It is hard to predict the number and duration of PSOM, given the fact that weather patterns have changed dramatically over the last few decades, but expectations are that PSOM events may occur later in wildfire season but could be anytime. TDPUD does not have operational control over timing and duration of outages other than safely restoring power to our customers once the high fire risk weather event has ended and NV Energy has restored transmission of power to the District. TDPUD is working closely with NV Energy and local emergency managers to develop communication protocols to notify key partners and our customers of upcoming PSOMs. This District is also collaborating with the Town of Truckee, Nevada County, Liberty Utilities, and others to begin to address significant local impacts. This includes numerous meetings with NV Energy and Liberty Utilities plus numerous meetings with the three utilities, Town of Truckee, Nevada County, and Placer County emergency managers. In addition, the District has led three meetings with all of the agencies identified above, Local Truckee Public Safety Providers (LTPSP) which includes over 25 local agencies and organizations including schools, hospital, critical infrastructure, local agencies, telecoms, among others. The District’s main focus has been to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires triggered by District infrastructure and being prepared to restore power as quickly and as safely possible after an NV Energy PSOM. The District is also conducting a robust customer/community outreach program (press release, all-customer e-mail/text, social media, bill stuffers, KTKE interview/radio spots, etc.) to educate TDPUD customers and the public so everyone can be prepared for extended wildfire safety outages. The District has been coordinating communications with LTPSPs and addressing at-risk populations such as our medical base-line registered customers. To help business customers be prepared, the District is collaborating with the Town of Truckee, Nevada County, and local business organizations to hold a Business Town Hall on July 20th to address PSOM impacts to local businesses. In addition, ongoing wildfire mitigation efforts and enhanced tree trimming and vegetation management continue. In the event of a potential PSOM, the District has developed a comprehensive notification and communications protocol for NV Energy to notify the District. This will include advance Page 3 of 5 warnings starting a 5 days before a potential PSOM. It should be noted that the probability of a PSOM actually occurring is not very high until you reach 48 hours before the forecasted event. At 24 hours, the probability of an event occurring becomes very high. TDPUD has committed to make contact with LTPSP primary contacts and will attempt to contact customers via e-mail or text at 48-24 and 12-4 hours before a potential PSOM. What can TDPUD Customers and Community Do? The main call to action is to contact the District and sign up for PSOM alerts and make sure customer contact information is up to date. This can be done by visiting www.tdpud.org and clicking on MyAccount/SmartHub or by calling the Districts dedicated customer service representatives at 530-587-3896. The District is also working hard to raise awareness of wildfire season and to help our customer be informed, take action, and be prepared for wildfire season and extended power outages. More information is available at the District’s new wildfire safety power outages webpage (www.tdpud.org/PSOM). If customers can’t be without power for whatever reason, they may want to consider the purchase of a back-up generator. It is important to make sure this is done safely and that portable generators are only used with extension cords and any permanent installation is done by a professional and meets the requirements of District Code and applicable building codes. Safely installing and operating a generator is critical for the safety of the customer but also to protect the District’s electric crews who can be placed in severe danger if a generator back-feeds into the District’s electric distribution system. More information is available at www.tdpud.org/PSOM. Given that the District was only recently aware of NV Energy’s PSOM program, the District has been focused on what can be accomplished during this wildfire season which is already upon us. Again, this is focusing on ensuring that the District’s electric equipment does not cause a catastrophic wildfire and being prepared to quickly and safely restore power after an NV Energy PSOM. The District is also working on communication protocols to notify our customers of a potential PSOM and doing what we can to help them be prepared and mitigate community impacts. This includes working collaboratively with the Town of Truckee and Liberty Utilities to set-up Community Resource Centers (CRCs) where the public can come during a PSOM event to charge medical and telecommunications equipment and interact with the community. The long-term impacts of NV Energy PSOM are unknown. Ideally, NV Energy will be able to harden their transmission system over time to the point where PSOM is no longer needed. In parallel, the need continues for our community to address wildfire fuels and defensible space so that wildfires do not become catastrophic to people and property. The District, our customers, and community will also need to engage to determine the hierarchy of needs that could be mitigated during an extended PSOM (emergency response, public health/safety, basic needs,, business/economy, and individual/homes), the alternatives that exist to address these needs, and the increasing costs/complexity as we go down the list. It should be noted that the timeframe required to identify the best solutions and implement them are well beyond this current wildfire season and may take multiple years. One longer-term solution that has been vocally advocated for to both the Town of Truckee Page 4 of 5 and the District is to immediately create a ‘Truckee micro-grid’ using portable fossil-fuel generators to power critical downtown circuits and along Donner Pass Road. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) defines a micro-grid as "a group of interconnected loads and distributed energy resources within clearly defined electrical boundaries that acts as a single controllable entity with respect to the (utility) grid. A micro-grid can connect and disconnect from the grid to enable it to operate in both grid-connected or island-mode. Micro-grids vary in size and can provide electricity to a home, business, campus, or isolated area. A micro-grid typically consists of diesel or natural gas generation, renewable generation such as solar, and energy storage. In addition, all micro-grids have a central control system, and automated distribution system switching. The control system and automated switching are key components that enable the micro-grid to operate in parallel to the utility grid, or to supply energy to loads in island mode. Each generation option has associated costs, performance, and environmental impacts that need to be considered. It should be noted that, unless paired with batteries, solar systems will not function during a power outage. Standby emergency generators and portable generators alone are not micro-grids. The costs, performance, and environmental impacts of micro-grids depend on the size of the systems needed to meet community needs. The more needs you service, the more expensive the micro-grid. According to a Phase I Microgrid Cost Study performed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in 2018, micro-grid costs can range from $2M to $4M per installed MegaWatt (MW) of capacity. The load on the District's Truckee Substation can range from 6 to 8 MWs during the summer months, and between 10 to 12 MWs during the winter season. According to NREL data, the cost to install a micro-grid for Truckee Substation only, could cost from $12M to $32M for summer loads alone. Once these critical needs (and priorities) are understood, Truckee’s community can begin to explore the costs and benefits of the many micro-grid options. As a publicly owned utility, distribution of costs for potential micro-grid infrastructure will need to be fully explored. Should TDPUD create a micro-grid to cover an entire circuit or should the critical businesses that make up a portion of that circuit install their own micro-grid/generators? Should all TDPUD ratepayers pay for individual micro-grids or should the businesses, agencies and their customers/constituents pay? Again, regardless of the optimal solution, establishing any level of micro-grid in time for the 2021 fire season is unlikely given the extreme demand and lead-time for any type of generator along with the complexity of utility-scale projects given the need for engineering,design, permitting, construction, and commissioning. District staff will continue to work with our local partners to address long- term needs and solutions. This item is in support of the following objectives and goals identified by the District. 1.05.020 Objectives: 1. Responsibly serve the public. 5. Manage the District in an environmentally sound manner. Page 5 of 5 1.05.030 Goals: 1.1 Conduct the District’s business in a legal, ethical, open, and transparent manner. 1.2 Implement a proactive public outreach program 1.3 Promote communication and cooperation with other public and private agencies. 5.4 Conduct District business in an environmentally lawful manner. 5.5 Minimize negative impact of District operations on the environment. FISCAL IMPACT: There is no fiscal impact associated with this Workshop Item. However, the fiscal impacts of responding to catastrophic wildfires since 2018 have been significant (over $1,000,000/year on vegetation management alone) plus the additional expenses, for which the full extent are unknown at this time, responding the new NV Energy PSOM program.