Pacific Gas & Electric Company ELC (Corp ID 39) Status of Advice Letter 5847E Disposition: Effective Date: Accepted 07-11-20
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STATE OF CALIFORNIA GAVIN NEWSOM, Governor PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION 505 Van Ness Avenue San Francisco CA 94102-3298 Pacific Gas & Electric Company ELC (Corp ID 39) Status of Advice Letter 5847E As of August 10, 2020 Subject: Grant of Easement to California Department of Water Resources for Relocation Work Related to the Oroville Spillway Incident Request for Approval under Public Utilities Code Section 851 and General Order 173 Division Assigned: Energy Date Filed: 06-11-2020 Date to Calendar: 06-17-2020 Authorizing Documents: None Disposition: Accepted Effective Date: 07-11-2020 Resolution Required: No Resolution Number: None Commission Meeting Date: None CPUC Contact Information: [email protected] AL Certificate Contact Information: Annie Ho 415-973-8794 [email protected] STATE OF CALIFORNIA GAVIN NEWSOM, Governor PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION 505 Van Ness Avenue San Francisco CA 94102-3298 To: Energy Company Filing Advice Letter From: Energy Division PAL Coordinator Subject: Your Advice Letter Filing The Energy Division of the California Public Utilities Commission has processed your recent Advice Letter (AL) filing and is returning an AL status certificate for your records. The AL status certificate indicates: Advice Letter Number Name of Filer CPUC Corporate ID number of Filer Subject of Filing Date Filed Disposition of Filing (Accepted, Rejected, Withdrawn, etc.) Effective Date of Filing Other Miscellaneous Information (e.g., Resolution, if applicable, etc.) The Energy Division has made no changes to your copy of the Advice Letter Filing; please review your Advice Letter Filing with the information contained in the AL status certificate, and update your Advice Letter and tariff records accordingly. All inquiries to the California Public Utilities Commission on the status of your Advice Letter Filing will be answered by Energy Division staff based on the information contained in the Energy Division's PAL database from which the AL status certificate is generated. If you have any questions on this matter please contact the: Energy Division's Tariff Unit by e-mail to [email protected] Erik Jacobson Pacific Gas and Electric Company Director 77 Beale St., Mail Code B13U Regulatory Relations P.O. Box 770000 San Francisco, CA 94177 Fax: 415.973.3582 June 11, 2020 Advice 5847-E (Pacific Gas and Electric Company ID U 39 E) Public Utilities Commission of the State of California Subject: Grant of Easement to California Department of Water Resources for Relocation Work Related to the Oroville Spillway Incident – Request for Approval under Public Utilities Code Section 851 and General Order 173 Purpose Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) requests approval under Public Utilities Code Section 851 (Section 851) and General Order 173, to grant the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) a perpetual non-exclusive easement agreement (Easement, included as Attachment 1) located on PG&E fee-owned property1 near Lake Oroville in unincorporated Butte County, California (Property). The Easement areas within the Property are located near Oroville Dam Boulevard to the North East of the City of Oroville. The proposed Easement would grant DWR permission to occupy the Property to construct, operate, and maintain three (3) 230 kilovolt (kV) power lines and four (4) underground electric and communication conduits on PG&E’s Property. This is necessary safety work as described in the Oroville Spillway Emergency Response and Recovery Resources Report (OER Resources Report)2 regarding the Oroville Spillway Incident in February 2017 (Incident). The OER Resources Report is included herein as Attachment 2. The purchase fee for the Easement is $80,300. The fair market value was determined by a formal appraisal performed by Bender Rosenthal Inc., dated February 9, 2018, included herein as Attachment 3. PG&E has inspected the Property and determined that the proposed Easement will not interfere with PG&E’s operations or PG&E’s ability to provide safe and reliable utility 1 PG&E’s property consists of two separate parcels; Assessor’s Parcel Nos. 069-010-019-000 (139.93 acres) and 033-010-055-000 (96.49 acres). 2 Oroville Spillway Emergency Response and Recovery Resources Report, California Department of Water Resources; dated January 24, 2018. Advice 5847-E - 2 - June 11, 2020 service to its customers. In addition, said Easement will not be adverse to the public interest. Background PG&E owns land, buildings, and other facilities in connection with the provision of electric and natural gas services to its customers throughout northern and central California. In the provision of these services, PG&E relies on a portfolio of fee properties, rights-of-way, and facilities to support its electric and gas activities. Some of these properties are adjacent to those owned by DWR. The Property, which is approximately 236.42 acres, is owned by PG&E for the purpose of housing portions of the Table Mountain-Palermo 230kV and Palermo-Oroville #2 60kV Electric Transmission facilities. DWR owns the Oroville Dam, located on the Feather River, approximately 75 miles north of Sacramento, California, and five miles northeast of the City of Oroville, and operates the dam facilities under a license from FERC (FERC Hydroelectric Project No. 2100). The DWR-owned real property on which the Oroville Dam is located is adjacent to the Property. In February of 2017, the Oroville Dam main spill way and emergency spillway suffered extensive erosion and damage. Due to high inflows into Lake Oroville and reduced outflow capacity on the main spillway, Lake Oroville overtopped the adjacent emergency spillway on February 11, 2017, which resulted in back-cutting erosion on the emergency spillway that threatened the stability of the emergency spillway’s crest structure. Subsequent increased operation of the main spillway led to the loss of the lower portion of the spillway chute and caused significant erosion near the spillway failure site. To ensure public safety following the Incident, DWR was required to complete emergency response and recovery activities before seasonal rainfall began in November 2017, as the rainfall could have required the use of the main or emergency spillways. As a result, this work was initiated in late February 2017, pursuant to DWR’s Oroville facilities Emergency Action Plan (EAP). As part of this effort, DWR immediately routed two (2) temporary electrical lines (shoofly) partially around the repair sites to transmit power generated from the Hyatt Pumping-Generating Plant. In May 2017, DWR submitted an initial filing to the FERC to notify them of the emergency response and recovery effort that was deployed in February 2017 per the EAP. The FERC filing is included herein as Attachment 4. After obtaining an amendment to its license from FERC on August 23, 2017, DWR proceeded to permanently reroute its Oroville-Table Mountain 230 kV overhead electrical facilities (Oroville-Table Mountain Facilities), away from the area of the project spillways and associated construction activities. This work, a portion of which took place on the Property, was completed in October 2018, including site stabilization and restoration. DWR has a standing requirement to ensure that the Advice 5847-E - 3 - June 11, 2020 facilities can reliably and permanently transmit electricity during the repair of the damaged sites, thereby necessitating the need to relocate the electrical facilities immediately.3 PG&E learned of the Oroville-Table Mountain permanent relocation work in February 2018. In addition to the overhead electrical facilities, an existing DWR underground 13.8kV power feeder cable (Feeder Cable) and associated existing fiber optic system (Fiber Optic System) were compromised during the Incident. Sections of the Power Feeder Cable were exposed by erosion, which has placed the cable at risk of failure. Also, DWR system communications rely on the Fiber Optic System, which is buried underground along the same corridor and, in some places within the same trench, as the Feeder Cable. The proposed Easement would allow the future relocation of the Feeder Cable and the Fiber Optic System. While the existing Fiber Optic System and Feeder Cable will remain in service during construction and installation of the new conduit and cables, they will be decommissioned and abandoned in place after the new Fiber Optic and Feeder Cables are commissioned. Once the new Fiber Optic System and Feeder Cable are relocated, power and communication will be transferred from the existing cables to the new cables, to minimize disruption to Oroville Dam operations. The new Feeder Cable and Fiber Optic System will be installed completely underground in conduit.4 The proposed Easement would grant DWR retroactive permission to occupy the Property to install, operate and maintain the Oroville-Table Mountain Facilities, and to conduct the necessary relocation of the Feeder Cable and the Fiber Optic System. The proposed Easement area is approximately 25.83 acres. The proposed Easement area consists of three (3) separate areas on the Property: 1) a tower line easement area (25.54 acres) for the Oroville-Table Mountain Facilities, 2) an underground cable easement area (.22 acres) for the Feeder Cable and Fiber Optic System, and 3) an underground cable easement area (.07 acres) for the Feeder Cable and Fiber Optic system. All three (3) Easement areas are shown on Exhibit B of the Easement. 3 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Office of Energy Projects, Division of Hydropower Administration and Compliance; Environmental Assessment; Amendment of Project License to Reroute Primary Transmission Line, Feather River; August 2017, included herein as Attachment 5 (Environmental Assessment). 4 California Department of Water Resources; Oroville Spillway Emergency Response and Recovery, Resource Report; January 24, 2018, included herein as Attachment 2. Advice 5847-E - 4 - June 11, 2020 Providing an easement for the relocation of these facilities benefits the public. First, the Oroville-Table Mountain Facilities that have already been relocated, had to be moved because they created a physical obstacle that would have interfered with reconstruction of the damaged Oroville Dam spillways.