Electricity: electrical infrastructure: permanently abandoned transmission facilities: emergency response: liaisons

Unused transmission equipment must remain subject to safety and wildfire protections until removal. Utilities must also place trained liaisons in local emergency operations centers.

What the law does ​

• Requires the California Public Utilities Commission to update its utility-safety order by January 1, 2028, requiring electrical corporations to remove permanently abandoned transmission facilities.
• Keeps applicable safety and wildfire-mitigation requirements in force for abandoned and out-of-service transmission facilities until removal.
• Requires electrical corporations’ wildfire mitigation plans to inventory all transmission facilities and specify removal timing and hazard-prevention measures for permanently abandoned facilities.
• Requires covered electrical corporations and local publicly owned electric utilities to establish coordination procedures with emergency agencies and assign trained liaisons to overlapping local emergency operations centers.

Who it affects ​

• Electrical corporations.
• Local publicly owned electric utilities whose service areas overlap a local emergency operations center.
• Local emergency response agencies and emergency operations centers.

Context ​

A permanently abandoned facility is an out-of-service transmission facility whose owner cannot document an intent to return it to service within a timeframe set by the commission.