Wildfire Mitigation

On Episode 6 of the TID Water & Power Podcast we sit down with TID’s Manjot Gill to discuss the District's wildfire mitigation efforts.

Californians are no strangers to wildfires, but wildfire season – which typically runs July through October – has increased in duration and severity in recent years. And utilities are under more scrutiny for their roles in past wildfires. TID has taken calculated and proactive measures to protect our service area from fire risk. 

We discuss the wildfire risk within TID's service territory and what measures the District is taking to mitigate that risk.

Let’s get social!
Facebook: @TurlockID
Instagram: @TurlockID
Twitter: @TurlockID
LinkedIn: /company/turlockid

Find out more about TID at https://www.TID.org/podcast. 

Let’s get social!
Facebook: @TurlockID
Instagram: @TurlockID
Twitter: @TurlockID
LinkedIn: /company/turlockid

Find out more about TID at https://www.TID.org/podcast.

Transcript

00;00;06;18 - 00;00;31;18
Speaker 1
Hello and welcome to the TID Water and Power Podcast. I'm your host, Constance Anderson. And on this month's episode, we're discussing wildfires and TID's wildfire mitigation efforts. Californians are no strangers to wildfires, but wildfire season, which typically runs July through October, has increased in duration and severity in recent years, and utilities are under more scrutiny for the

00;00;31;18 - 00;00;56;03
Speaker 1
roles they have played in past wildfires. TID is taking calculated, proactive measures to protect our service area from fire risk. On this episode, I'm joined by Assistant General Manager, Electrical Engineering and Operations Manjot Gill to talk about wildfire risks in TID service area and what efforts the district is taking to mitigate that risk for our community.

00;00;57;06 - 00;00;58;20
Speaker 1
Thanks for being with us, Manjot.

00;00;59;02 - 00;01;01;02
Speaker 2
Yeah, thanks for having me. I'm glad to be here.

00;01;01;23 - 00;01;08;18
Speaker 1
Why don't you start off by telling us a little bit about your current role at the district as an AGM and how you got into that position?

00;01;09;06 - 00;01;23;00
Speaker 2
Yeah. So currently as as you mentioned, assistant general manager of Engineering and operations, my team is responsible for our engineering, planning and maintaining and operating our grid. That's kind of the main focus of our group at TID.

00;01;24;09 - 00;01;28;08
Speaker 1
Great. And how what led to your becoming a GM?

00;01;28;10 - 00;01;41;10
Speaker 2
Yeah. So I started here at the District in 2006 as an engineer and really progressed in the area of line engineering and found some roles as a department manager and then transitioned into AGM in 2017.

00;01;42;15 - 00;01;50;20
Speaker 1
Okay. And so in your current role then you have been responsible for overseeing TID wildfire mitigation efforts, is that right?

00;01;50;23 - 00;02;06;15
Speaker 2
Absolutely. So that's something that we've taken very serious about, is ensuring that our wildfire mitigation plans are in effect. And also, we've been having some standards and constructions that we've been doing for many years and now at this memorializes what we've been doing for for a long time.

00;02;06;27 - 00;02;27;07
Speaker 1
So typically when our customers think about TID service area in relation to wildfires, I don't think that's much of a concern for most people because they don't realize necessarily the areas of higher concern and the fact that we do have a couple of those high concern areas in our territory.

00;02;27;11 - 00;02;27;29
Speaker 1
Is that right?

00;02;28;00 - 00;02;43;11
Speaker 2
Yeah, you're absolutley right.  So generally the way how we have it, I mean, as you're all aware, our service territory, 676 square miles and and majority of our of our customers are not really impacted by warfare mitigation or wildfire issues that we have to contend with.

00;02;43;11 - 00;03;01;27
Speaker 2
However, we have our tips of our territory that that are impacted. So that's our east side fire zones that we've established, which is essentially east of Lake Road and then our west side, which is west of I-5. Those are the two areas that are impacted by wildfires and any mitigation measures that we have to implement.

00;03;02;09 - 00;03;10;10
Speaker 1
And if you had to kind of define those areas by communities, the east side would include.

00;03;11;26 - 00;03;27;16
Speaker 2
Yes. As for customers, East Sides, about 260 customers. And then we got in the West, it's about 721. So yeah. So in regards to total customers impacted in the in the wildfires is about less than about a thousand.

00;03;27;24 - 00;03;43;26
Speaker 1
Okay. And then west of I-5, we're kind of talking about the communities of Diablo Grande and Adobe Springs. Adobe Springs, thank you. And then east of Lake Road, that would be the communities of La Grange.

00;03;43;26 - 00;03;47;26
Speaker 2
And yeah, it's La Grange going all the way to the tip. Our service territory.

00;03;48;00 - 00;04;08;26
Speaker 1
Very good. Okay. That kind of helps give folks a little perspective about the the geographical areas that that we're going to be talking about today. Okay. So now that we've identified kind of these two geographical areas that are of elevated risk, what type of characteristics are there in each of these areas that that qualify them as

00;04;08;26 - 00;04;09;06
Speaker 1
such?

00;04;09;14 - 00;04;20;10
Speaker 2
Yeah. In our service story, it really pertains to the type of fuel. And so that's, you know, grasslands and we have rolling hills in those respective areas. And on the east side we have some repairing that we have to address and contend with.

00;04;21;01 - 00;04;24;13
Speaker 2
And that's what really kind of defines what we're really focused with in those areas.

00;04;25;03 - 00;04;46;20
Speaker 1
Okay. And then I understand that, you know, we have certain weather conditions that present that kind of create an increased risk. And really, it's the combination of certain circumstances that that increase the risk. Can you tell us a little bit about what some of those weather related circumstances might be?

00;04;46;26 - 00;04;47;04
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00;04;47;04 - 00;04;59;20
Speaker 2
So temperature is one of the big ones. High winds, that's the one of the big key is ensuring that high winds are something that we have to monitor and ensure that we have the ability to address those high wind conditions.

00;05;00;06 - 00;05;09;11
Speaker 2
Humidity is another one, right? If it's low humidity, that's it's primed for ignition. So those are kind of the three key areas that really focus on. But the biggest one is high winds.

00;05;09;18 - 00;05;26;10
Speaker 1
Okay. As you mentioned earlier, the total number of customers that we're talking about is less than 1000. So it's a relatively small portion of TID total customer base. But as we know, the fire season has been getting longer.

00;05;26;10 - 00;05;39;17
Speaker 1
The fire wildfires themselves have been growing in severity. And so it does remain a top concern for today, even though the the number of customers potentially affected is is a smaller portion.

00;05;39;27 - 00;05;57;02
Speaker 2
Yeah. I mean, it comes down to our responsibility as a utility to ensure that we don't cause any any wild fires in our territory or anything that would expand our territories. So we do take a lot of pride in ensuring that we can meet the standards and address everything in appropriate fashion.

00;05;57;09 - 00;06;18;00
Speaker 1
Okay. So our last classification then of these two areas, they can be called a state responsibility area or SRA, or they can be classified as a high fire threat district or both. Can you tell us where those two classifications come from?

00;06;18;14 - 00;06;35;09
Speaker 2
Yes. As you mentioned, there's there's two areas. There's the SRA, which is Cal Fire, and the other one is the higher threat zones identified by the CPUC. Both have two different set criterias of how they follow through in their severity of addressing fires.

00;06;35;23 - 00;06;58;14
Speaker 2
One has enhanced equipment they can utilize. One actually expands the wildfire zoning. So what we've done is we taken the standards, both of those standards and put together one stringent standard that addresses both areas. We've actually expanded our territory to accommodate both SRA and CPUC wildfire threat zone to Tier two.

00;06;59;06 - 00;07;07;12
Speaker 2
We wanted to make sure that we took the most stringent approach to ensure that we were diligent in addressing any wildfire mitigation needs in those respective areas.

00;07;07;20 - 00;07;20;16
Speaker 1
Okay. So just to recap that, we've got the state responsibility area as identified by Cal Fire. We've got the High Fire Threat District as identified by CPUC, which is California Public Utilities Commission.

00;07;20;16 - 00;07;21;20
Speaker 2
That's correct. That's correct.

00;07;22;04 - 00;07;38;15
Speaker 1
And they have identified an area, but then TID has actually chosen a larger area that we've included in our wildfire mitigation plans just to make sure we are all encompassing of the potential threat area.

00;07;38;15 - 00;07;50;10
Speaker 2
Yeah, we would really want to take a conservative approach to that, assuring that we have the right equipment in the right areas and so encompassing both was one of the a challenge for us, but we wanted to ensure that we did the most appropriate thing.

00;07;50;10 - 00;08;03;00
Speaker 2
So expanding our territory did allow us to do more in those areas. But we felt that as a practical item for us to do the best business practices to ensure we address those fire areas.

00;08;03;05 - 00;08;08;25
Speaker 1
Great meeting and exceeding what either Cal Fire or the CPUC would require of us.

00;08;08;25 - 00;08;09;25
Speaker 2
Awesome.

00;08;11;06 - 00;08;24;27
Speaker 1
Okay. So we've talked a little bit about the geography. Let's talk about some of TID specific assets in each of those areas. What do we have in those areas with regard to transmission and distribution equipment?

00;08;25;02 - 00;08;42;12
Speaker 2
Yeah, primarily the equipment that we have in these in these areas, it's mainly overhead equipment. So overhead distribution lines, overhead transmission lines. In the west side, we've got about 77 miles of overhead conductor and then approximately 18 miles of underground.

00;08;42;12 - 00;08;56;24
Speaker 2
And that's in those respect and perspective areas there. And then we move to the east side, east sides, about 34 miles of overhead distribution wire. We do have a set of transmission also, and that's about 61 miles of transmission.

00;08;58;10 - 00;09;11;17
Speaker 1
All right. Okay. So let's back up for a minute before we get into the current wildfire mitigation plan, let's talk about what TID past efforts have been in the way of mitigation.

00;09;12;14 - 00;09;32;10
Speaker 2
You know, over the years, we've developed a number of construction standards, and those construction standards required us to have a certain number of equipment out there. So when we talk about type of equipment, you can say a fuze and those that don't know about Fuzes, they protect the overhead lines or underground lines, but we identify them

00;09;32;10 - 00;09;45;25
Speaker 2
as expulsion fuzes those that have been out there. If a Fuze operates, it makes a pretty big bang. It sounds like a shotgun that goes out, but it does going to have an expulsion that happens. So you see a little spark while the spark can obviously ignite and cause a fire.

00;09;45;26 - 00;10;04;03
Speaker 2
So we've replaced and whenever we had new construction at the time, in the back time and in those in the previous, we would put in certain equipment that will not have that expulsion type. So that's a fuze that we call a fault tamer, our current limiting fuzes that don't have those characteristics in operating.

00;10;04;03 - 00;10;19;23
Speaker 2
So we've done that. We've changed our our clearances on our poles to make sure that we have our appropriate clearances for Avon. And so we've done a number of those things just to ensure the equipment that's been installed over the years doesn't transition to a fire.

00;10;20;14 - 00;10;31;15
Speaker 1
And then on the subject of power poles, you also test the poles on a regular basis to confirm their integrity and the lifespan of those poles. Is that right?

00;10;31;16 - 00;10;51;26
Speaker 2
Yeah. There's a couple of things we follow. The CPUC sees GO general owner requirements of inspecting our facilities, and one of the inspections is intrusive inspections where we have to go on a ten year cycle will go through the poles, making sure there is no decay or any issues and even woodpecker damage and cross arms or

00;10;51;27 - 00;11;16;02
Speaker 2
potentially could be decaying over time. So we do that very proactively where we have a a contractor come out, help us identify these locations. And if there's any mitigation needed, we'll go out and replace those equipment. As for kind of some historical stuff, about last year, we had approximately like 2.5% failure rate of the poles.

00;11;16;02 - 00;11;29;07
Speaker 2
But that's something that we addressed immediately because our focus was to go into and the previous years was to hit all those wildfires areas and making sure that was addressed. And we didn't have any equipment that's out there feeling.

00;11;29;19 - 00;11;37;24
Speaker 1
Great. And if you had to throw out an estimated number, how many a power poles would you say has in each of these two fire zones?

00;11;38;15 - 00;11;40;02
Speaker 2
About 470?

00;11;40;10 - 00;11;42;24
Speaker 1
Okay. That's a lot of that's a lot of poles to check.

00;11;42;24 - 00;11;45;02
Speaker 2
Yeah, it's a lot of poles on a wire in the air, that's for sure.

00;11;45;03 - 00;12;02;18
Speaker 1
Definitely. And like we said originally, these are measures that TID have been taken for years now that this isn't these inspections, these replacing of of equipment that might lead to a spark. That's something that TID has done for decades.

00;12;02;19 - 00;12;03;05
Speaker 1
Is that right?

00;12;03;05 - 00;12;19;09
Speaker 2
Yeah. So it's it's, you know, best versus best business practices that we've been following and ensuring that we met the CPUC G.O requirements. So yes, this is something that we've been doing for decades here at this organization to ensure that we we meet all requirements.

00;12;20;00 - 00;12;28;02
Speaker 1
Okay. So we've talked about the specific equipment. What can you tell us about what TID vegetation management practices have been?

00;12;28;18 - 00;12;46;02
Speaker 2
Yeah. So in the years we've taken a very proactive approach. Every fire season we'll build firebreaks around transmission towers, we'll actually spray herbicides around some of the poles as well. And like I mentioned, we do the inspections, and inspections will identify if there's any trees.

00;12;46;02 - 00;12;53;05
Speaker 2
And so we'll anually go out and trim the trees in those areas to ensure we're well prepared for a a wildfire season.

00;12;54;23 - 00;13;01;14
Speaker 1
And how often what is the the schedule if there is a regular schedule for tree trimming in these areas.

00;13;01;23 - 00;13;12;05
Speaker 2
Yeah. Are typical tree trimming cycles is approximately three years. But however we do have those outliers where we when we do our inspections, we do need to go out and address it. We'll actually send crews out in advance.

00;13;12;12 - 00;13;23;04
Speaker 2
So actually, we take it we take it very seriously to ensure that we we have the appropriate clearances from trees or any other equipment that's out there from our lines.

00;13;23;29 - 00;13;39;11
Speaker 1
All right. So we talked about expulsion, fuzes we talked about maintaining the health or the integrity of our wooden power poles. But we also might occasionally replace a wooden pole with a fiberglass pole. Is that right?

00;13;40;10 - 00;13;56;23
Speaker 2
Yeah. So we look at the the areas that have been impacted. So in these areas you may have say woodpecker damage and we'll just go look and replace everything with a fiberglass pole, even cross arms, to make sure that we don't have any impacts moving forward.

00;13;56;23 - 00;14;14;03
Speaker 2
And it's a case by case that we review to see what it is. And then even though other items which, you know, we look at it fiberglass poles and like it's also a conductor, one of the items that we really also focused on and making sure that we've hardened our system was to replace and this is a

00;14;14;03 - 00;14;28;16
Speaker 2
proactive thing that we've done is replace all our copper conductor. Copper conductors is is great for ampacity. It handles a lot of load, but it is a weak conductor. So we replace that with, uh, we call it ASR, it's aluminum conductor steel supported.

00;14;28;27 - 00;14;37;26
Speaker 2
Um, and so that's been something that we've put out. Three, uh, I would say last year we focused to replace the lot of that conductor out there to ensure that we harden in our system.

00;14;38;17 - 00;15;05;06
Speaker 1
All right. So as I had mentioned that in the intro, utilities are under greater scrutiny for their wildfire mitigation efforts for preparation efforts in preventing wildfire. What was kind of that pivotal moment when when things kind of took more of a spotlight or when things kind of really were called into into question?

00;15;05;06 - 00;15;09;11
Speaker 1
And was there legislation that came specifically from that time?

00;15;10;12 - 00;15;31;17
Speaker 2
Yeah. So that was SB 901 and that was put in place and that was to to address some of those devastating wildfires that some of the utilities had to contend with in 2017. And so it really wanted to memorialize what utilities and their practices needed to be to ensure the infrastructure is maintained and it doesn't have

00;15;31;17 - 00;15;42;04
Speaker 2
any impacts for wildfire. So that was really the catalyst of when the wildfires began and then what utilities can do to ensure that wildfires are not caused by utilities.

00;15;42;10 - 00;16;06;09
Speaker 1
All right. So SB 901 then basically required utilities to take the the mitigation efforts that they had currently been practicing. And and as we mentioned, TID had a whole whole long list of of mitigation efforts that we did on a regular basis and really formalize those into a wildfire mitigation plan.

00;16;06;10 - 00;16;07;00
Speaker 1
Is that correct?

00;16;07;07 - 00;16;26;00
Speaker 2
Yeah. And in that plan, like I said, every utility had to take their practices and make it as a standard form that every utility would be measured by a standard practice. So that was what the intent of the SB 901 to be implemented and many utilities had put together their plans and formalize those.

00;16;26;00 - 00;16;45;01
Speaker 2
They have to go to their respective boards or whatever it may be to get those finalized. And also when they go through that process, they have to have a third party evaluation done to ensure that they are following what the Wildfire Advisory Board, which was put on from SB 901 to ensure that everybody is following the same

00;16;45;01 - 00;16;48;19
Speaker 2
practices and they're addressing all the requirements in SB 901.

00;16;48;26 - 00;17;12;00
Speaker 1
Okay. So it may very well have been the case that some utilities had to increase their standards to meet those that were required, whereas it sounds like TID because we had opt and opted to take the most stringent of the requirements put upon us as our regular practice, we were really meeting those targets already, is that right?

00;17;12;06 - 00;17;30;18
Speaker 2
Yeah, we definitely were. We were kind of ahead of the game when we put together a lot of our construction standards to address those wildfire areas. But we did take a proactive approach in addressing all those while SB 901 was was being implemented to ensure that we didn't skip a beat, making sure that we went back and

00;17;30;18 - 00;17;38;15
Speaker 2
reviewed and inspected every facility out there to ensure that we were following every item listed in SB 901.

00;17;38;25 - 00;17;48;29
Speaker 1
Okay. So let's talk a little bit about the the development process that went into formalizing TID's wildfire mitigation plan. What what can you tell us about that?

00;17;49;13 - 00;18;11;08
Speaker 2
A lot of engagement. That's what it was working with. The public collaboration was very key. We collaborated with Cal Fire and worked very heavily with the CPUC Fire Threat Maps. And when I mentioned that we public engagement, we actually had to have town halls meet met with the communities on both sides of our fire zone.

00;18;11;08 - 00;18;24;17
Speaker 2
So that's Diablo Grande and La Grange. We worked with each community, ensure that we're informing them of what we're doing, soliciting their feedback. And then, like I mentioned, we work with Cal Fire to identify the process that we're taking.

00;18;24;17 - 00;18;42;05
Speaker 2
Did follow through with SB 901. But yeah, it was it was a very well put together effort with all because we all want to avoid a wildfire. Doesn't matter who it is and what impacts they are. We want to make sure that what we've implemented can can be addressed in those extreme fire risk zones.

00;18;43;17 - 00;19;03;15
Speaker 1
And I'll also just put in a quick plug here that part of that public engagement and that that engagement with the community was giving folks the option to sign up for  TID alerts, which is an alert notification system, so that if there is concern in an area or if there is an active wildfire in an area, then TID

00;19;03;20 - 00;19;20;10
Speaker 1
has the opportunity to to send out messaging to folks who are signed up for the system. And so if any of our listeners would like to sign up for that system, you can find the information on how to do that at the bottom of the home page at TID.org.

00;19;20;22 - 00;19;30;23
Speaker 1
And again, the program is called TID Alert. So going back to the wildfire mitigation plan, how often is the plan reviewed and how often is it updated?

00;19;31;11 - 00;19;45;19
Speaker 2
So it's updated annually but reviewed every three years and that we have to submit to the Wildfire Advisory Board. But we do meet with our board and up and provide them the updates annually and then those are submitted to a wildfire advisory board.

00;19;45;19 - 00;19;49;03
Speaker 2
But every three years it's a comprehensive review.

00;19;49;16 - 00;20;04;02
Speaker 1
Okay. And I understand that the TID plan was called out in sort of a Goldstar way with regard to our presentation to the Wildfire Safety Advisory Board. What can you tell us about that?

00;20;04;03 - 00;20;26;12
Speaker 2
Yeah, so we were asked to participate on a panel with the Wildfire Safety Advisory Board in regards to how the district implemented our territories and how we defined our wildfire zones. Many of the utilities took it to where they just focus on the CPUC, see how high fire threat zones where we took the comprehensive look

00;20;26;12 - 00;20;47;09
Speaker 2
of both SRA and and the CPUC, see how high fire threat zones and combine them. So that meant that we went far and above what many utilities were working through, but we took it as the best practice. And so expanding our wildfire zones are going to be helping the community, helping the area that we were taking a

00;20;47;09 - 00;20;56;08
Speaker 2
much more proactive approach. So when we are asked to be on that panel, we kind of give them are input and know how we've facilitated the changes in our system.

00;20;56;17 - 00;21;19;17
Speaker 1
Great. Well, congratulations on being recognized for those efforts. Thank you. That's awesome. All right. So as you were taking what TID practices have been in the way of of wildfire mitigation previous, previously or prior to SB 901, and you're formalizing those creating the official wildfire mitigation plan for the district.

00;21;20;27 - 00;21;29;05
Speaker 1
Were there any mitigation efforts that you identified that the district decided to enhance or make enhancements in certain ways?

00;21;29;11 - 00;21;41;26
Speaker 2
Yeah, as you're mentioning, we definitely focused on addressing the SB 901 vegetation management was was one of the biggest critical items that we were focusing on. But we looked at others, as you mentioned, and that's such as weather stations.

00;21;41;26 - 00;22;00;11
Speaker 2
Weather stations will help us understand the conditions in those wildfire zones and then what actions we need to take place to ensure we follow red flag warning days and ensuring that we have the appropriate protection settings on our breakers and relays to ensure that we can address those issues.

00;22;00;28 - 00;22;11;20
Speaker 2
Other things, as I mentioned earlier, was hardening the system. That's something that we've been focusing on pretty heavily. We've already addressed some of the hardening there, but we're going to be focusing on what else we could do.

00;22;11;20 - 00;22;30;15
Speaker 2
And as I mentioned, hardening is replacing conductor copper to that Acer conductor I mentioned to you earlier. One other thing that we're also looking at is much more of a smart grid tech looking at fault into greater indicators, more advanced grid protection is what we're going to be addressing in the near future.

00;22;31;07 - 00;22;44;05
Speaker 2
Grid protection that comes into like smart reclosers that's kind of a breaker that's out in the field. But those are the type of equipment that we're going to be focusing on and expanding our protection efforts in those fire zones.

00;22;44;17 - 00;22;57;29
Speaker 1
And how do having these fault indicators and some of the smart grid technology, how what does that mean for the employees who are constantly 24/7 monitoring the system?

00;22;58;09 - 00;23;15;27
Speaker 2
It's essentially data driven decision making. And that's what we really need to focus on, is just making sure that our field staff is aware of what's happening out in the field. So our fault indicator will definitely give them a visual indication that there's wires on the ground and what they could do to address that in a

00;23;15;27 - 00;23;24;11
Speaker 2
timely fashion. So it's mainly the focus of getting the data back, giving us the information to be nimble and make those changes out in the field.

00;23;25;01 - 00;23;47;08
Speaker 1
Excellent. Okay. So let's talk a little bit about what happens in the event of a wildfire. You know, we've made our best effort to ensure that, you know, that, number one, that none of our equipment is responsible for contributing to the start of a fire and then also making sure our our territory is prepared in the event

00;23;47;09 - 00;24;00;14
Speaker 1
of a wildfire. But should a fire happen in our service territory, what practices then go into place or what guidelines do we follow in that situation?

00;24;00;23 - 00;24;22;22
Speaker 2
Yeah, we've developed a comprehensive incident action plan and that Incident Action Plan defines what roles each department is going to be facilitating through addressing these fires. Where are we going to go meet with Cal Fire? So we have a pretty comprehensive plan that addresses every action and what department collaboration we need to address these issues.

00;24;23;09 - 00;24;41;23
Speaker 1
Okay. So now I want to talk about public safety, power, shutoffs or PSPS. We've heard a lot about them, especially over the last couple of fire seasons. And it's something that has affected nearly the entire state of California in the last couple of years.

00;24;42;09 - 00;24;46;24
Speaker 1
How does TID define a public safety power shut off.

00;24;47;20 - 00;25;02;01
Speaker 2
Yeah, there's there's a whole host of trigger points that define that. And for us, we've. And let me back up here. Not just trigger points, but also how does it impact our customers first and foremost? It mainly impacts the customers in those types of our territory.

00;25;02;18 - 00;25;14;27
Speaker 2
One thing that we did have issues with, obviously, when everybody's talking about the PSPS, we're getting calls left and right. Is it going to impact them locally? No, it's mainly the tips of our territory in those thousand customers that we mentioned.

00;25;15;10 - 00;25;30;13
Speaker 2
But however, the criteria that really focuses on what we're focusing on is high wind events. So 56 mile an hour winds ensuring that we have the right conductor there and ensuring that basically the poles are not going to fall down.

00;25;31;03 - 00;25;51;12
Speaker 2
But it's one of our last resorts to use the PSPS we are ready to implement if need be. But we take pride in ensuring that our equipment is held to a high standard. We will and will set out troubleshooters to ensure that if there's a high gust warning for that particular day, that we'll go out

00;25;51;12 - 00;26;09;28
Speaker 2
and review our facilities. There's other trigger points that we have in our control room in high fires. Our red flag warning days will change every our protection settings to ensure that if a fire were to occur for any set events, that our system will deenergize immediately.

00;26;09;28 - 00;26;25;22
Speaker 2
So we take a lot of proactive approaches. But as I mentioned, it's kind of our last resort of PSPS. We don't do what some of the other utilities where they're taking a PSPS event in advance and taking kind of those rolling outages for that.

00;26;26;08 - 00;26;33;27
Speaker 2
We leave that to well, let's go put our eyes out there. Let's go take a look at the facilities. And then if we do see a threat to our facilities, then we'll take that approach.

00;26;34;13 - 00;26;43;09
Speaker 1
Okay. You've mentioned a couple of times red flag days. What what actually defines a red flag day and what does that mean to the district?

00;26;43;15 - 00;26;58;13
Speaker 2
Yeah. So Cal Fire will identify a red flag warning day as we get high winds, low humidity temperatures. Also one of those that that temperature varies, but it's also high winds and humidity. So to us, that's very that's a trigger point.

00;26;58;14 - 00;27;11;11
Speaker 2
Sorry that what actions we need to take. And that's what our control room does to ensure that the protection settings are changed and the actions we need to take out in the field. Whenever there's a red flag day, our work methods change.

00;27;11;20 - 00;27;21;22
Speaker 2
So we won't have certain equipment out there. We won't use anything that would cause sparks, for example, grinding any of that nature. But we also would bring out a water buffalo.

00;27;22;17 - 00;27;23;10
Speaker 1
What's a water buffalo?

00;27;23;10 - 00;27;36;18
Speaker 2
Basically a water tank that we pull behind one of our trucks that we would spray down if need be, even though we won't drive in dry grass or any of that nature. Or if that is the case, we need to get to certain facility.

00;27;36;27 - 00;27;45;19
Speaker 2
We'll make sure we have the right equipment out there to do so. So we want to basically ensure that however we address our facilities, there is at least impact.

00;27;45;24 - 00;27;59;16
Speaker 1
Okay. So that red flag warning then kind of triggers that there are a number of those specific conditions that we mentioned early on in the podcast that those are present and could potentially cause a problem.

00;27;59;25 - 00;28;00;06
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00;28;00;13 - 00;28;14;00
Speaker 1
And then that we then take that information and like you said, make changes in our operations to ensure that we're not doing anything that would endanger that or that we're taking the appropriate mitigation efforts.

00;28;14;01 - 00;28;14;15
Speaker 2
That's correct.

00;28;14;26 - 00;28;33;12
Speaker 1
Okay. All right. So we you did mention actually that we have our kind of the two tips of our service territory on the on the East and the West that we had identified earlier, that they do have the potential to be affected by PSPS situations.

00;28;33;23 - 00;28;47;16
Speaker 2
Yeah. Yeah, I know. Thank you. That's that's one thing I need to clarify is district wise, as I mentioned, PSPS for us is one of the last resorts. However, we do have a set of customers that are part of the Adobe Springs.

00;28;47;16 - 00;29;01;29
Speaker 2
There are about 36 customers that are being fed from a line from a neighboring utility, and that neighboring utility would utilize the PSPS events. So in the event that they do take that approach, it does impact those customers.

00;29;01;29 - 00;29;15;02
Speaker 2
But we do a very good, diligent job by utilizing that TID alert that you mentioned earlier to give them the latest information once you receive from the neighboring utility that if they're taking a PSPS event in the next 48 hours, we'll send them a message.

00;29;15;02 - 00;29;30;13
Speaker 2
So they're well prepared. But as I mentioned, it's only a handful of customers that are impacted by that, that are outside of our bounds. But anything in the in our territory service territory will definitely address it by a last resort item.

00;29;31;23 - 00;29;47;01
Speaker 1
Okay. So 2020, 2020. Mind you had a host of issues going on, but that was also the year of the SCU complex fire, which did affect part of TID service territory. What can you tell us about that incident?

00;29;47;16 - 00;30;03;29
Speaker 2
Yeah, that was a very devastating fire, as you guys all probably recall. There was ash and smoke everywhere for days, and that was the month of August that we were had to contend with this fire. So the start of the fire came once from actually lightning strikes and no fault of anybody.

00;30;03;29 - 00;30;24;20
Speaker 2
There were multiple lightning strikes in that particular month that many utilities and Cal Fire and fire agencies had to address. So this one happened to be in our territory. A number of our facilities were impacted. Our customers in Adobe spring areas, they were impacted because it also went down to the Santa Clara County line and it kind

00;30;24;20 - 00;30;46;23
Speaker 2
of came all the way up towards the south and a part of our territory as well, almost up to I-5. But to address that fire, it was it was a big collaborative event. We had our line department, construction and maintenance and our safety and emergency preparedness really worked together to ensure that we were addressing this fire in

00;30;46;23 - 00;31;05;27
Speaker 2
a in a collaborative approach. And we worked with Cal Fire and the county to make sure that we're all in the know, making the right approaches. But I mean hats off went to TID team they were able to build firebreaks line crews were able to deenergize certain sections of the line but ensuring that water supply was was

00;31;05;27 - 00;31;09;23
Speaker 2
protected for the town of La Grange  oh sorry Diablo, I meant to say.

00;31;10;21 - 00;31;17;02
Speaker 1
But really and I'm sorry, I'm going to stop you real quick. Can you explain the connection between the water supply and a loss of power?

00;31;17;09 - 00;31;38;27
Speaker 2
Yeah. So there's pumps there that that provides water to Diablo Grande. And the fire was definitely in that trajectory to come in that area. So we didn't want to dedeenergize that. So we had line department and on our construction maintenance group go out and build firebreaks and ddeenergize certain sections of our line to ensure water was

00;31;38;27 - 00;31;55;14
Speaker 2
there, that our fire department needed to come down and in Diablo Grande and utilize their their pumps to get water that it was supplied. So we really collaborated with Cal Fire to making sure that we addressed it. But as I mentioned, I mean, hats goes off to the all TID team that that worked day and night to

00;31;55;14 - 00;32;08;28
Speaker 2
make sure that we were there for the community. And and at the end of the day, we actually collaborated with our neighboring utilities to there were still a number of days that there was no power to those respective customers.

00;32;08;28 - 00;32;25;09
Speaker 2
So we worked on getting generators and getting that process going, but we also focused on rebuilding our facilities. There were a number of poles that came down and wire down, and as we were building back up, we looked at opportunities to realign.

00;32;25;09 - 00;32;41;04
Speaker 2
Some of the facilities would have proper access instead of going through some very tough terrain. So it gave us, I guess the positive side of light was to be able to build an infrastructure which was much harder than the was built before, but also to be able to give back as soon as we can.

00;32;41;04 - 00;32;55;22
Speaker 2
So our line department, like as I mentioned earlier, they were able to put in these facilities. It wasn't the the best terrain either. It's rock, you know, it was tough digging. They all worked day and night to make sure that we can get the power back.

00;32;55;22 - 00;33;10;21
Speaker 2
And and we did it. And great fashion lines were up. We were actually waiting for the other side of some of the facilities to come back, and that's from that neighboring utility to build their infrastructure. But it was, like I said, a big collaborative support from everybody.

00;33;11;06 - 00;33;26;04
Speaker 1
All right. And I know the yeah, as you mentioned, the line crews worked extremely hard to get the infrastructure back in place and were able to do so, which then enabled the neighboring utility to provide a generator took power from.

00;33;26;04 - 00;33;39;00
Speaker 1
So we got the infrastructure there. They provided the generator and we were really able to get those customers back re-deenergized in a really short amount of time, all things considered.

00;33;39;06 - 00;33;54;13
Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, definitely. And like I said, it was a good collaboration with our neighboring utilities, making sure that, you know, we work together and getting that generator for those customers. And they had I mean, this generally was supplied to other customers, too, but mainly for we our focus was TID our customers.

00;33;54;13 - 00;33;59;03
Speaker 2
So it was it was, like I said, great collaborations from all across the board.

00;33;59;24 - 00;34;15;07
Speaker 1
And just a quick note there, too, that there's more that goes into the restoration process than just putting the poles out, putting the line up and turning the power back on. There's a a checking process and ensuring reliability that that goes on there.

00;34;15;07 - 00;34;15;20
Speaker 1
Is that right?

00;34;15;24 - 00;34;30;29
Speaker 2
Yeah. So that's what's any any of the any line that goes out of service. We have to inspect each facility. It's part of our lockout tagout procedures that is before we deenergize any facility we inspected. So that means we run it.

00;34;31;05 - 00;34;45;05
Speaker 2
Run the lines down. Keeping our control room well informed that if if a line is now clear to be deenergized, that they're in the know because they are the the operator of our grid and then the field personnel would would, you know, bring that information back.

00;34;45;05 - 00;35;01;13
Speaker 2
And and, yeah, it is a process. It goes through a big ordeal in regards to depending upon if it's a long terrain, it may take, you know, a couple of hours for us to run it through. But when we are dealing with the SCU complex fire, we had a couple of of team members running each section of the

00;35;01;13 - 00;35;05;18
Speaker 2
line, being on their radios to making sure that we can get that power quickly.

00;35;06;00 - 00;35;16;01
Speaker 1
And that's a safety precaution. And one of the most important for both the crews working on the on the outage, as well as the community that they're servicing.

00;35;16;06 - 00;35;16;26
Speaker 2
Yeah, absolutely.

00;35;18;02 - 00;35;40;22
Speaker 1
Okay. So let's talk a little bit about future. We'll call them opportunities. We know that climate change is happening. We know that it's affecting, you know, our operations here at TID. And part of that is creating that environment for an increased risk of wildfires.

00;35;42;06 - 00;35;48;14
Speaker 1
What do you see as being changes that we can expect to happen in some of these elevated risk areas?

00;35;48;28 - 00;36;07;17
Speaker 2
Well, the biggest thing is the seasons are getting longer and that puts a lot of impact on what we need to do, not just as TID, but as a community. So climate change has has definitely impacted the you know, we say it's getting hotter and hopefully it gets wetter soon.

00;36;07;17 - 00;36;14;16
Speaker 2
We haven't had rain come in for a while, but that's one of the things that really has changed is the duration of time for wildfire seasons.

00;36;15;13 - 00;36;23;21
Speaker 1
And what sort of impacts does that have on either our mitigation efforts or TID staff who are implementing these efforts?

00;36;24;10 - 00;36;41;06
Speaker 2
You know, as I mentioned earlier, and when we're discussing constances, we take a very proactive approach every season and trimming our trees. So and then ensuring vegetation is well-managed. As the season gets longer, we have to go out and make sure we inspect again, make sure that if we need to put more herbicides or not.

00;36;42;05 - 00;36;51;19
Speaker 2
So that would be one of the biggest challenges that we have. But overall, it's more so making sure that the inspections are done well in advance of a wildfire season.

00;36;52;01 - 00;37;09;28
Speaker 1
Okay. And with regard to wildfire season, on a larger perspective, you know, we're doing what we can to prevent that those situations happening in our service territory. But TID has been impacted by wildfires outside our service territory.

00;37;10;14 - 00;37;11;17
Speaker 1
What can you tell us about that?

00;37;11;26 - 00;37;25;19
Speaker 2
Yeah, there's there's a big host of things that we can discuss on that. But in the last podcast that you had with Bill Baca, I know he mentioned about the complexities of our system and where we buy power outside of TID.

00;37;25;19 - 00;37;46;03
Speaker 2
We actually sell and buy. And when facilities outside of TID are impacted or that that hurts our resources. So that's where we can't bring power back in and nor we can actually sell out to to the grid. So yeah, it is very devastating sometimes where we're if there's a wildfire that occurs outside of our service territory, we

00;37;46;03 - 00;38;03;29
Speaker 2
are significantly impacted where we have to utilize all our generation assets to ensure we meet our load because we can't purchase from outside of the district. So it's something that everybody needs to be cognizant of that wildfires just don't impact the respective utility, but it respects many others.

00;38;04;07 - 00;38;15;01
Speaker 2
And so we need to make sure that everybody is well informed of how we can do our part to ensure that everybody in our community is is able to get their their power for that particular day.

00;38;15;10 - 00;38;27;06
Speaker 1
Absolutely. And as you started to tee it up TID does its part. But what can the community do to take mitigation, wildfire mitigation efforts into their own hands?

00;38;27;20 - 00;38;42;13
Speaker 2
Yeah. So the individuals like, for example, that are in those wildfire zones, we we would encourage you to make sure that you have your proper vegetation management. I'm sure everybody's very cognizant of these days because it is very critical that we all know.

00;38;42;28 - 00;38;57;05
Speaker 2
So that would be one of the biggest things. The other things that we can do other than vegetation management is balloons. You know, we all like to celebrate. And and balloons do cause some issues, especially Mylar balloons, where it can cross phase on the line.

00;38;57;05 - 00;39;14;23
Speaker 2
Sparks happen and that may cause some some issues. So and those high fire risks zones or times our timeframes, we just encourage people to just to be cognizant of it that, you know, if we are celebrating around those timeframes at ensuring that we don't cause any issues in that regard.

00;39;14;23 - 00;39;26;10
Speaker 2
So my modeling recommendation to to our community, major wise, would be is, you know, do your part in your vegetation management. And if there's something where you need support on and there's something that you're uncertain of, give us a call.

00;39;26;13 - 00;39;42;20
Speaker 2
We'll actually go out, inspect and see if a service needs to dedeenergized for you to have you have your trees trimmed or anything of that nature. We're more than happy to do so. And so you can contact our service division and they'll help you support getting you the appropriate resources there.

00;39;42;27 - 00;39;59;09
Speaker 1
And that's an important note to make in a wildfire threat area, not in a wildfire threat area. Any time you you have any tree trimming to do anywhere near power lines, we want to make sure that TID has the opportunity to dedeenergize those lines so that that can be done safely.

00;39;59;09 - 00;40;00;08
Speaker 2 Absolutely.

00;40;00;21 - 00;40;14;01
Speaker 1
Thanks for for calling that out. Okay. We're about to wrap up our time together. Is there anything we haven't yet touched on that that our listeners need to know about TID wildfire mitigation efforts?

00;40;14;17 - 00;40;33;20
Speaker 2
No, I think we we've addressed everything that we're doing. As I mentioned numerous of times where we've taken a very proactive approach in addressing these wildfire areas and continue to do so. And with your support as for our community, I think we'll be able to continue on and protecting our lines, protecting our community in regards to wildfires

00;40;34;07 - 00;40;38;02
Speaker 1
Very good. All right, Majot, thank you so much for being with us today.

00;40;38;06 - 00;40;39;05
Speaker 2
Yeah, thank you for having me.

00;40;39;27 - 00;40;57;22
Speaker 1
Thank you for tuning in to the TID water and Power podcast. You can find it on Facebook at Facebook.com/Turlock ID. On Instagram and Twitter at TurlockID and on LinkedIn as the Turlock Irrigation District. I'm your host, Constance Anderson.

00;40;58;01 - 00;40;59;08
Speaker 1
We'll see you again next time.