State audit: thousands of miles of bare lines and gaps in oversight leave California utilities vulnerable to wildfire risk

State Auditor staff summarized the March 2022 electrical system safety audit to San Francisco’s Local Agency Formation Commission, telling commissioners that investor-owned utilities have extensive exposure in high-fire-threat areas and that current oversight falls short.

Project manager Jonathan Klein said the audit identified three central concerns: at least 40,000 miles of bare distribution lines in areas at greater wildfire threat; 67 public safety power shutoffs from 2013 through 2021 affecting more than 3,600,000 customers with an average outage of 37 hours; and oversight processes that do not hold utilities sufficiently accountable. Klein said the audit is available online with interactive graphics so residents can check whether distribution lines in their neighborhood are bare, covered or underground.

Auditors recommended the Legislature require the California Public Utilities Commission to adopt a more robust audit plan and to create a schedule of penalties for violations identified through audits. The auditors also urged state law to require the Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety to verify that a utility has substantially implemented its prior mitigation plan before issuing a safety certification.

The commissioners pressed auditors on follow-up and enforcement. Auditors said the California State Auditor follows recommendations at 60 days, six months and one year and that some recommendations were addressed to the Legislature because agencies opposed certain changes. The auditors confirmed that the CPUC has had authority since 2014 to issue penalties for audit findings but has not issued penalties based solely on audits in recent years.

The auditors provided cost estimates for infrastructure improvements: undergrounding distribution lines was cited at roughly $2.6 million to $3.0 million per mile, and installing covered lines at about $700,000 per mile. Auditors said those approaches would take significant time and expense and emphasized prioritizing the most at-risk circuits.

The presentation framed public safety power shutoffs and equipment setting changes as mitigation tools that reduce ignition risk but have substantial community impacts when applied, including prolonged outages with little or no advance notice. Auditors recommended the Legislature expand reporting requirements to include circuits frequently de‑energized by equipment settings as well as by planned shutoffs.

The auditors offered to answer follow-up questions and encouraged the commission to consult the full report and interactive data tools on the Auditor’s website.