PG&E Says 'Underutilized' Grid Is Ready to Handle Increased Electricity Demand

(Bloomberg) — PG&E Corp., California’s largest utility, hopes to meet growing demand for electricity without significantly expanding its fleet of power plants, according to Chief Executive Officer Patti Poppe.

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The company predicts demand will double by 2040, driven by artificial intelligence, data centers, electric vehicles and other efforts to further electrify the economy. To meet this demand, Poppe expects PG&E’s grid utilization rates to climb to 80%, from current levels of around 45%.

Although there will be “a new generation,” Poppe said better use of existing assets will be key to providing more energy without increasing costs.

“Our network today is underutilized,” Poppe said Friday in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “We built the network years ago, and now we can use it. »

The company is also taking steps to prepare for wildfires. PG&E has equipped two Black Hawk helicopters with 1,000-gallon tanks, which can be filled with water or fire retardant, to fight fires in California. The utility owns two other Black Hawks that are used for construction, such as installing poles and towers.

Poppe is committed to preventing catastrophic wildfires, which drove the utility into bankruptcy in 2019 after its equipment sparked some of the worst fires in California history. More than 100 people died and thousands of homes were destroyed.

The utility says it has reduced equipment-related fires by 68% since 2017 by installing more weather monitoring stations, hardening poles, covering and burying power lines and preemptively shutting off power during bad weather. dry and windy.

(Corrects spelling of CEO from second paragraph.)