An obscure regulatory rule change two decades ago allowed utilities to keep up unused, potentially hazardous electrical systems — like the one now being investigated as sparking the Eaton fire.
An obscure regulatory rule change two decades ago allowed utilities to keep up unused, potentially hazardous electrical systems -- like the one now being investigated as sparking the Eaton fire.
The utility says it is investigating whether its Mesa-Sylmar transmission line – idled since 1971 – may have somehow become energized in high winds, touching off a fire at the base of a tower above Altadena.
Under 1922 regulations, utilities were required to take down “abandoned” electrical equipment, so not to “become a public nuisance or a hazard to life or property.”
In 2004, Edison was fined for violating that rule in the 1998 death of a man in Lancaster tied to a transformer the utility left up months after a nearby home was demolished. Regulators imposed the fine after rejecting the company’s contention that its equipment wasn’t “abandoned,’’ because it was left in place for future use.
But that rule was changed in 2005, as part of a rulemaking negotiation at the CPUC. The definition of “abandoned” equipment that had to be removed was changed. Under the new language, the removal requirement was limited to “permanently abandoned” equipment that owners determined had “no foreseeable use.”
“This is ridiculous,” said former state Public Utilities Commissioner Loretta Lynch, a frequent critic of utilities. Lynch says the rule change amounted to a “get out of jail free” card for utilities – allowing potentially unsafe idled systems to remain based on a vague assertion that they might be needed in the future.
“This should never have happened -- that the PUC allows the utilities to decide what's abandoned and what's not, based on what's profitable to them and what's not,” she said.
California
“All electric equipment by its nature is hazardous,” said former CPUC law judge Steven Weissman, who teaches at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy.
Weissman noted the rulemaking process documentation makes no mention of safety. “Safety is not something that can be compromised, literally,” he said. “And yet, that's what they've done here.”
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In the aftermath of the Eaton fire, Edison has used potential future use as a justification for leaving the Mesa-Sylmar tower in place, saying in a statement: “There are many reasons we would keep an idle tower in place, including the potential need for more transmission to meet the electrification needs of the future. It is important to remember that we inspect these idle facilities regularly.”
But Weissman, the former regulator, is skeptical of that future use justification, saying: “If this line is sat idle for six decades, what makes you think you're ever going to use it?”
He also wonders just how thoroughly utilities would inspect long dilapidated equipment.
“Did they go through any kind of a theoretical exercise to figure out how this abandoned equipment could cause some sort of a problem?” Weissman asked, “or did they just sort of fly by in an airplane and say, well, ‘it's still there?’’’
Weissman now wonders whether the Eaton fire will lead regulators to rethink the rules about “abandoned’’ lines. The Public Utilities Commission declined to comment for this story, citing the ongoing investigation.
