SACRAMENTO — Legislation advanced this week from Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, that would help ensure electrical utilities are pursuing the fastest and most cost-effective infrastructure improvements, safeguarding the public from future wildfires and saving money for ratepayers forced to cover the cost of more expensive repairs.

“With utilities making upgrades to keep us safe from wildfire, we must ensure they identify projects that have the biggest impact and can be completed in the shortest amount of time for the least amount of money,” Sen. Dodd said. “We need the biggest bang for the buck when they do projects. It means we’ll be protecting our communities from wildfires sooner and avoiding unwarranted rate increases as we’re forced to absorb the cost of these improvements.”

Recently, the California Public Utilities Commission approved a $13.5 billion rate increase requested by PG&E to pay for the undergrounding of 1,230 miles of electric utility lines over the next three years.

This is a fraction of the more than 10,000 miles of undergrounding PG&E proposes for the next decade in hopes of reducing the risk of its utility infrastructure sparking wildfires. The cost per mile is estimated at $3 million.

However, there are alternatives such as insulating existing utility cable. Insulating wires costs an estimated $800,000 per mile, and in certain circumstances may be as effective in preventing wildfire ignitions as undergrounding, and achievable in far less time.

“It’s all about maximizing benefit, while minimizing ratepayer costs,” Sen. Dodd said. “Undergrounding lines in high risk areas is important and needs to continue in a targeted manner, but we also need to advance faster, cheaper methods to maximize safety today.”

Sen. Dodd’s Senate Bill 1003 would direct the Office of Electrical Infrastructure Safety to consider the timeliness of investor-owned utility electrical infrastructure upgrades when reviewing the utilities’ wildfire mitigation plans to ensure that the maximum amount of risk from utility sparked wildfires is reduced in the shortest amount of time. SB 1003 cleared the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications committee today with unanimous support and heads next to Appropriations.

“Safety today is not the same as safety in 3 or 10 years,” said Michael Wara, director of climate and energy policy at Stanford University. “This bill will force the utilities to account for the long implementation delays of some strategies as an additional cost to their customers. Delivery of adequate service today — including the ‘service’ of safety — is an important value that all Californians deserve from their electric utilities. This bill will compel utilities to evaluate not just how safe a system they can create in the long run, but will push them to do it as quickly as possible.”

Dodd represents the Third Senate District, which includes all or portions of Napa, Yolo, Sonoma, Solano, Sacramento and Contra Costa counties.