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Pacific Power briefs Siskiyou supervisors on system-hardening projects and wildfire risks
Summary
Pacific Power told the Siskiyou County Board it has invested in covered conductor, nonwood poles and sectionalizing devices across a roughly 11,000-square-mile California service area — work the company says improves safety but increases costs for ratepayers. Local officials pressed the utility about reliability data, pole transfers and project timelines.
Pacific Power regional staff on Tuesday described multiyear system-hardening work aimed at reducing wildfire ignitions and improving reliability across northern California communities that include parts of Siskiyou County. The company said it is balancing safety investments with significant costs to customers.
"Our number one goal as a company is the safety of our customers and the safety of our communities," said Jill Drinkwater, Pacific Power's regional business manager for California. She said the utility's California service territory covers roughly 11,000 square miles and serves about 46,000 customers, or about four customers per square mile. Pacific Power staff said more than 60% of that service territory falls in state-recognized high-fire-risk tiers and that the company has prioritized projects accordingly.
Presenters outlined recent accomplishments in nearby communities: a reported 164 miles of line replaced with covered conductor and more than 3,800 poles swapped for steel or fiberglass in one area, plans to rebuild lines in Crescent City starting in 2027, and ongoing work in Fort Jones, Etna and Happy Camp. Dave Schober, principal project manager for wildfire mitigation projects, described covered conductor, sectionalizing devices and nonexpulsion fuses as key technical steps to reduce ignition risk and speed restoration when faults occur.
Supervisors and residents used the public Q&A to press Pacific Power on local problems: covers coming off of new connection points, long delays while other utilities transfer joint attachments and the visible presence of stacked or retired poles in towns. Alan Meyer, the company's customer community affairs director, said Pacific Power is testing mechanical pins to secure covers and is coordinating with Caltrans and other joint users on pole transfers, but that multi-utility projects take months to complete.
On reliability, Pacific Power said it is still gathering sufficient post-installation data to quantify improved outage statistics: "We do have a department actively working on it and tracking it," Drinkwater said, adding that it is "too soon" to produce definitive year-over-year reliability metrics. Board members said they expect the company to share those data as they become available.
The presentation and follow-up remarks gave supervisors a clearer sense of where county communities will see work and when, and highlighted trade-offs between extensive system upgrades and higher rates for customers.
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