Electrical corporations: high firethreat areas: electrical grid monitoring equipment.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law requires each electrical corporation to construct, maintain, and operate its electrical lines and equipment in a manner that will minimize the risk of catastrophic wildfire posed by those electrical lines and equipment. Existing law authorizes the commission to prescribe the installation, use, maintenance, and operation of appropriate safety or other devices or appliances. This bill would require each electrical corporation to install monitoring equipment on transmission and distribution lines in high fire threat areas as designated by the commission by December 31, 2020. The bill would require that the monitoring equipment be installed between each set of poles or towers, generate raw data on line temperature, ambient temperature, electrical current, line movement, and barometric pressure, access satellite communication for connectivity, and be noninvasive at point of installation. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because the provisions of this bill are within the act and require action by the commission to implement their requirements, a violation of which would be a crime, these provisions would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.