Pacific Gas and Electric Co said on Wednesday that it buryed 10,000 miles of electrical channels in the high-risk fire zone to prevent forest fires as part of the safety initiative announced at California’s Butte County which would take more than a year to complete it.
Utilities maintain more than 25,000 miles of electrical channels of overhead distribution in the highest fire risk zone, or more than 30% of the total distribution of overhead systems, according to PG & E.
The company emerges from bankruptcy last year.
It was seeking protection from creditors after forest fires triggered by equipment in 2017 and 2018 encouraged potential obligations of utilities to tens of billions of dollars.
In 2020, California suffered the most destructive forest fire season in the note in the vast terms of burning.
In May, California authorities documented more than 1,000 more forest fires throughout this state than that had erupted at the same time last year.
Requorable electricity channels, or underground, reduce the need for the closure of public safety power, which is the last choice during dry and windy conditions to reduce the risk of trees to touch the lifeline’s electrical channels and trigger fire.
PG & E serves more than 16 million people at 70,000 square miles in North and Central California.