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UC Berkeley analysis: fast‑trip settings sharply cut utility‑ignited fires, changing undergrounding calculus
Summary
University of California, Berkeley researchers told the Assembly committee that enhanced power system safety settings (fast trip) sharply reduced ignitions in PG&E territory and are more cost‑effective per avoided structure than enhanced vegetation management; undergrounding still eliminates risk on targeted circuits but is costlier.
A UC Berkeley researcher told the Assembly Committee on Utilities and Energy that operational changes to how distribution equipment trips have dramatically reduced ignition risk in recent years and altered the cost‑benefit outlook for mass undergrounding.
Duncan Callaway, professor and chair of the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley, said his team's models show enhanced power system safety settings, commonly called "fast trip," reduced ignitions by about 82% on circuits where they were applied. "These fast trip settings are tremendously cost effective," Callaway said, adding that undergrounding still "completely or…
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