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Agenda Item
6.23 23-0584 Subject: Undergrounding Of Power Lines In Very High Fire Severity Zone
From: Councilmember Ramachandran
Recommendation: Adopt A Resolution Requesting That Pacific Gas And Electric (PG&E), Office Of Energy Infrastructure Safety (OEIS) And The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Commence The Review And Approval Process For The Undergrounding Of Overhead Power Lines In The Oakland Very High Fire Severity Zone, Including The Montclair District And Several Neighborhoods In East Oakland, As A Critical Matter Of Public Safety To Reduce Wildfire Risk And The Potential For Fatalities Due To The Area's Imminent Risk Of Fire, Population Density, And Extraordinary Challenges For Egress And Ingress Routes
Dear Council members, I applaud this resolution and Councilmember Ramachandran's initiative. I would like to report as background information my recent experience with PG&E. I completed construction of a new house on Snake Rd. and had a planned an underground electric service connection, to be ready for future undergrounding of lines. When it came time to finalize the electric panel, PG&E told us that the utility pole right at the end of driveway was "full", meaning they could not get one more wire from the top down the ground (what it's full of is another matter- stuff nobody in the neighborhood asked for). So what they said is that if we wanted an underground drop we had to pay for about 200' of trenching on the street at $200/ft, in addition to engineering and other fees. So they effectively forced us to switch to overhead service (and caused us a 4 month delay). They should at least be supportive of people willing to install underground service.
Dear Council members, I applaud this resolution and Councilmember Ramachandran's initiative. I would like to report as background information my recent experience with PG&E. I completed construction of a new house on Snake Rd. and had a planned an underground electric service connection, to be ready for future undergrounding of lines. When it came time to finalize the electric panel, PG&E told us that the utility pole right at the end of driveway was "full", meaning they could not get one more wire from the top down the ground (what it's full of is another matter- stuff nobody in the neighborhood asked for). So what they said is that if we wanted an underground drop we had to pay for about 200' of trenching on the street at $200/ft, in addition to engineering and other fees. So they effectively forced us to switch to overhead service (and caused us a 4 month delay). They should at least be supportive of people willing to install underground service.