@ryanosaur Didn't see this until just now, so I'll chime in. There are several things "wrong" in California that contribute to the PSPS (public safety power shutdown).
First, I want to say this: the decision to cut power is not solely PG&E's. The feds (USFS) and the state ( Cal Fire and CPUC) have input. PG&E doesn't want to cut power- they stop generating revenue and their operating costs increase.
There are more trees in North America than ever before. This is primarily due to a mentality of fire suppression (reactive) vs. fire prevention (proactive). When you combine this fact with a prolonged period of drought, there's a lot of standing dead wood here. I stiff breeze will snap off limbs. The end result is a forest floor littered with a lot of fuel. When dry winds come through ( called Diablo Winds) it makes conditions ripe for very rapid fire spread.
From a grid standpoint- there's definitely a lot of work that needs to be done... and there are a lot more lineworkers than just PG&E doing it. It's been happening for years, so to say the company doesn't perform maintenance is erroneous. The number one cause of problems is definitely limbs or entire trees falling on lines. For the most part circuit protection does a good job of either allowing temporary faults ( like branches laying across the phases) to clear themselves or shutting down the circuit in the event of a permanent fault (line either coming down or burning down). A problem occurs when trees come down and hit the Telco. Fiber is much stronger than conductor. The conductor breaks away ( as it should), but often the Telco doesn't and the pole snaps. If this all occurs while a recloser is doing it's job, and a transformer comes down onto the ground and bursts, only the briefest phase to ground short (read a fraction of a second) will cause the arc flash that will start a fire. This happened in Coffey Park during the Santa Rosa fires. There were Diablo Winds blowing that night.
When such events occur in wildland areas ( like the Feather River Canyon, just below Paradise) it causes big problems as we've now seen in recent years. The issue of liability in California is somewhat unique due to the inverse condemnation laws that exist. Everywhere else, the grid failures caused by natural events are deemed acts of God. Most utilities there for do not incur similar liability.
As can be seen, the issue is complex, and is not strictly bourne of corporate greed (although that is a problem). Up in Paradise we get some flack from the residents. They're mad at the suits, but take it out on us- we're sacrificing a lot of family time to work on rebuilding that town, and it sucks when people fling the poop at us. Just last week a ticked off resident didn't want to wait to get through a work zone and went in the opposing lane if traffic, almost hitting a crew member. Another guy threatened violence. I feel the work we're doing is important, and none of us are going to go elsewhere because of some bad seeds, but it can be a drag.
I think that's probably about $0.03 worth
