Calif. Commissioner: 'Not Enough' Compliance With Resiliency Rules
SAN DIEGO -- The California Public Utilities Commission might follow up on disaster resiliency orders that include emergency plan and 72-hour backup power requirements for wireless and wireline industries, CPUC Commissioner Cliff Rechtschaffen told us Monday at NARUC’s summer meeting. On a panel about hardening networks, a wireless industry official disagreed with Rechtschaffen that carriers weren’t doing enough before the CPUC issued rules two years ago.
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“There’s substantial compliance, but not enough yet,” with resiliency orders adopted for wireless in July 2020 and wireline in February 2021 (see 2102110066), said Rechtschaffen after a panel on hardening networks. “Maybe” the CPUC will need to follow up, he said. “We certainly need to keep very close attention to it.” State consumer advocates urged the CPUC to keep open its emergency docket (see 2204040032).
About 45% of wireline carriers complied with requirements to submit resiliency and emergency operations plans, while all wireless carriers complied, a CPUC spokesperson said Tuesday: All larger wireline companies complied, but staffers found many smaller wireline carriers in Tier 2 and 3 high fire-threat districts were unaware of the CPUC’s decision. “Staff is working with them to get them in compliance for this year,” and meanwhile is reviewing 2020 and 2021 submissions “and recommending improvements to the carriers about their plans on an ongoing basis,” the spokesperson said.
“Wireline carriers are in compliance with the 72-hour backup power requirement through applying a waiver that permits portable generation,” said the CPUC spokesperson: Wireline resiliency plans show 77% of facilities with at least one hour but less than 72 hours of backup power, while 14% have no backup power and 9% exceed 72 hours. For wireless, about 30% of facilities lacked 72 hours of backup power and 21% had no backup power, the spokesperson said.
Wildfires caused by climate change have “shaken California to the core,” Rechtschaffen said on the NARUC panel. Increased fires over the past five years changed dynamics at the CPUC and in the legislature, giving policymakers “the impetus and backbone that we had talked about" for a decade but hadn't acted upon, he said. “The absence of communication was stark” among telecom and energy sectors and public safety, but after the CPUC’s resiliency orders, “we are in a better place now.” There was disagreement over CPUC authority, but the commission strongly believed it had police power to act, he said.
CTIA Director-State Regulatory Ben Aron disagreed, saying it’s “naive to believe” carriers didn’t already have full emergency and resiliency plans. The CPUC order “simply forced us to describe them in a rubric” designed by the agency, he said. Generators aren’t appropriate everywhere, said Aron. “I don’t think you guys want us putting diesels all throughout … your cities.” California makes it “extremely difficult” to place and use generators, he added.
Communication about public safety power shutoffs is another challenge for carriers, said Aron. “We can only be as good as the information we’re receiving,” but energy utilities don’t always give accurate information about where and when shutoffs will happen, he said.
Voluntary industry efforts weren’t doing it, responded Rechtschaffen. CPUC resiliency orders give industry much flexibility, said the commissioner: The 72-hour backup requirement can be waived where it’s unnecessary, infeasible or objectively impossible, and the commission isn’t requiring companies to put diesel generators in areas where it would be a public health concern, he said.
Rechtschaffen agreed good coordination is required for power shutoffs, which he said are now used 12-24 times a year by energy companies when conditions look ripe for wildfires in high-threat areas. The commissioner said the CPUC is directing utilities to provide better notifications to communications companies.