CPUC Penalizes PG&E $125M For Kincade Fire Violations

SONOMA COUNTY, CA — Pacific Gas and Electric Company will pay $40 million for violations related to the ignition point of the October 2019 Kincade Fire in Sonoma County, the California Public Utilities Commission announced Thursday.

Under a settlement reached with the CPUC’s Safety and Enforcement Division, PG&E shareholders will pay the $40 million to California’s General Fund. PG&E will also incur an $85 million permanent disallowance for cost recovery for the removal of abandoned transmission facilities within its service territory, for a total of $125 million, the CPUC said.

The Kincade fire burned more than 77,000 acres and destroyed nearly 374 structures, resulting in the largest evacuation effort in Sonoma County history.

The wildfire erupted shortly before 9:30 p.m. Oct. 23, 2019, at John Kincade Road and Burned Mountain Road, near Geyserville in northeastern Sonoma County. As the wildfire spread southwest, it threatened several rural Sonoma County communities, as well as the cities of Healdsburg, Cloverdale, Windsor and Santa Rosa.

• SEE ALSO: PG&E, Sonoma County Reach $31M Settlement In Kincade Fire

Following a year-long investigation, Cal Fire determined the Kincade fire was caused by broken PG&E equipment.

The morning after the fire started, PG&E filed a report with the CPUC and acknowledged broken equipment was found on a transmission tower near Kincade Road and Burned Mountain Road northeast of Geyserville.

PG&E officials said that at 9:20 p.m. the night of the fire, they became aware of a transmission-level outage on the Geysers #9 Lakeville 230kV line, which de-energized when the line relayed and did not reclose.

PG&E said it did not de-energize the transmission lines in that area but did de-energize distribution lines, which are the smaller lines that connect to homes and businesses.

The CPUC said its investigation of the Kincade wildfire and the involvement of PG&E’s infrastructure in the fire revealed multiple violations of General Order 95, a CPUC regulation that sets safety factors and strength requirements in the design, construction, and maintenance of overhead electrical lines and communications facilities.

• SEE ALSO: Kincade Fire's Devastation In Sonoma County In 10 Images

The settlement agreement announced Thursday addresses the violations through shareholder-funded permanent removal of multiple abandoned transmission facilities within PG&E’s service territory, the CPUC said.

Reached Thursday evening, PG&E sent this statement to Patch regarding the CPUC settlement.

"We will continue our work to make it safe and make it right, both by resolving claims stemming from past fires and through our work to make our system safer tomorrow than it is today. As we’ve said previously, we accept CAL FIRE’s finding that a PG&E transmission line caused the Kincade fire.

"We recently reached a settlement agreement with the Safety and Enforcement Division (SED) of the California Public Utilities Commission on its investigation into the Kincade Fire. While we disagree with SED’s alleged violations, we believe the settlement will assist in allowing all parties to move forward from the fire, and permit us to focus on compensating victims and making our energy system safer."