CPUC workshop reviews plan to modernize GO 95 with LRFD; scope, timing and workshop format debated

At a California Public Utilities Commission–hosted IOU workshop, industry representatives and commission staff discussed a petition to incorporate load and resistance factor design (LRFD) into General Order No. 95 (GO 95), the CPUC regulation that governs the design and construction of overhead electric and communications facilities in California.

The workshop centered on whether to adopt LRFD as a modern framework for GO 95 and on procedural questions for detailed technical workshops: how many sessions will be needed, whether they will be hybrid or in‑person, how votes should be handled and how much time parties need to review the IOU‑led workshop report. Parties also debated whether related questions — including retroactivity (Rule 12) and Appendix F example calculations — should be resolved in this proceeding or deferred to narrower technical working groups.

Sam Stonerock, head of the GO 95 rules committee and an engineer with Southern California Edison, framed the petition as an update to the rulebook’s engineering method. Stonerock said the rules committee proposed LRFD to align California practice with the methodology taught in U.S. engineering programs and used elsewhere in the industry. He recommended a series of technical workshops and described a set of time‑tested workshop protocols intended to let technical experts develop draft language while permitting attorneys and managers to review proposed changes before formal votes. "I prefer in person meetings," Stonerock said, but he added that IOUs planned to provide a…