Page 116 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

CORE VALUE: TEAMWORK
DIALING IT IN: PSPS-3
California’s utilities were on high alert all during the month of October, the height of the fire season. In Northern California, PSPS-3 kicked off October 9 and didn’t conclude until well into November. It was, by far, the best run public safety power outage of the 2019 season. By then, the utility had gained enough expe- rience to run their third Public Safety Power Shutoff with much more efficiency. Dry conditions and severe wind warnings prompted the event, which covered thirty-four counties and impacted nearly 800,000 custom- ers. Much of the coverage and equipment employed mirrored that used in PSPS-2. The big difference was the utility’s proactive, real-time responsiveness.
PSPS-3 utilized significantly more single units in the shutoff zone because they were getting better at antic- ipating and targeting needs. “Their engineers on the ground were evaluating multiple locations and commu- nicating with us,” says Ray, who received numerous heads-up calls to ready equipment. “I thought they did a great job on PSPS-2, but PSPS-3 was even better because they were constantly evaluating potential sites for temporary power.”They also set up over two dozen community resource centers throughout the affected area with air-conditioning, bathrooms, bottled water, electronics recharging and internet use. Those strategically placed facilities helped their customers weather the inconvenience and eventually developed into a more stan- dardized solution.
THE NEXT LEVEL: HOT SPOT HUBS
In early 2020, George Schalk got a call from the utility. They wanted to know what it would take to pre-wire a facility for faster hook-up times. In essence, how could they create a plug-n-play solution in anticipation of at least five years of PSPS events. From there, they hired two electrical contractors—Cupertino Electric and Vince Sigal, both staunch Peterson customers—to do the installation work. It took a year-and-a-half
Rental generators from several other Cat dealers waiting in anticipation of the PSPS season in 2020
to install all the hubs at 30 facilities and another 225 hubs on power poles throughout Northern California. “It’s all part of the utility’s temporary power generation program called the Community Microgrid Enablement Program. These switches, or pre-installed interconnec- tion hubs (PIHs), were placed so we can hook up our generators in half the time it would normally take,” ex- plains Schalk. “The goal is to have a pocket of business- es that can support life in a community during these planned safety outages. And to be able to hook them up quickly.”
POPULATING THE MICROGRID
The utility’s microgrid system was designed to streamline the PSPS process to make it as smooth and efficient as possible. It’s proactive versus reactive. These hot spots, called Resiliency Zones, form a microgrid system of plug-n-play hubs throughout Northern California. In early 2020, the utility put out a bid for 300 mega- watts of generation to temporarily power those sites. “No single vendor could provide all 300 megawatts of
114 | PETERSON: 85 YEARS AND GOING STRONG