The man running one California utility’s emergency operations center is on the front line of the corporate battle against climate change
SAN FRANCISCO — In Pacific Gas & Electric’s windowless emergency operations center, Mark Quinlan, senior director of emergency preparedness and response, was trying to decide just how many of the utility’s customers were going to lose their electricity.
Quinlan is on the front line of the corporate battle against climate change. Stronger winds, less rainfall, drier ground conditions and aging wires and poles have all made Quinlan, who moved here from Chicago six years ago, the person balancing risks. He’s been doing that amid outcries from those hurt by fires as well as those inconvenienced or harmed by rolling blackouts.
by 2100 of areas burned by wildfires. And Cal-Adapt, a state-funded project led by the University of California at Berkeley, charts a variety of grim scenarios.in PG&E’s jurisdiction with an average age of 39 years. The wires are vulnerable to falling trees that have been killed or weakened by bark beetles or drought. To keep dry vegetation cut back away from potential sparks, the utility had already jacked up spending from $100 million in 2014 to $500 million three years later.
Scott Strenfel, the principal meteorologist for PG&E, put his computer cursor on a map of Willows, Calif. The computer, drawing on about five billion wind data points, spit out this calculation: The wind speed was 30 miles an hour, and compared with historical data, that meant a power outage was likely within 25 miles 50 percent of the time.
“No one wants another Camp Fire. No one wants to see that kind of damage and destruction,” he said. “I visited the site, and it was like something I’ve never seen.”
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