The 10-month state investigation into three wildfires that scarred San Diego County last year has prompted new concerns over potential safety hazards across the electricity grid.
The investigation report, released this week by the California Public Utilities Commission, raised alarms over the discovery of a number of broken lashing wires identical to the Cox Communications wire found to have ignited the deadly Guejito fire.
At the same time, regulators are increasingly worried about the volume of cables, antennas and other telecommunications equipment being added onto the aging power-pole network, a condition they called “pole overloading.”
The commission's Consumer Protection & Safety Division has recommended mandating inspections by cable and telephone companies that piggyback their equipment onto the grid, and it has launched a special review to figure out how many lashing wires across the state are vulnerable to breaks.
“We don't know how widespread and serious the problem is, which is precisely why we're setting up the protocols and beginning the broad-scale inspections,” said Richard Clark, who directs the safety division. “They've started one fire, and one is one too many.”
Clark declined to say how many broken lashing wires his inspectors documented during their investigation. “We found quite a few in this general vicinity, and we took it very seriously.”
Lashing wires are thin strands of stainless steel that bind fiber-optic cables to stronger wires strung from power pole to power pole. They are not energized but are capable of conducting electricity.
In July, state fire officials blamed the Guejito, Witch Creek and Rice Canyon fires on San Diego Gas & Electric power lines. The October fires killed two people, burned about 210,000 acres and destroyed more than 1,300 homes.
This week's report said SDG&E and Cox failed to maintain safe and reliable equipment. The Cox lashing wire that helped ignite the Guejito fire had not been inspected since it was installed in 2001, according to the report.
SDG&E and Cox disputed the report's findings as not supported by the evidence.
SDG&E faces a series of lawsuits related to the fires. Cox is expected to be added as a defendant in a San Diego suit against SDG&E.
The Consumer Protection & Safety Division said utilities commissioners should require telecommunications companies to inspect their equipment according to a prescribed schedule.
Under current regulations, only the electric companies are directed to conduct visual inspections of the lines. The proposal is likely to go before commissioners within 60 days, Clark said.
State and federal rules require power companies to make pole space available to other service providers. Up to 90 percent of SDG&E's 196,000 distribution poles carry cable, phone or other wires, the company said.
The arrangements benefit the telecommunications companies by allowing them to deliver cable and other services without duplicating equipment used by electric companies. They also reduce the number of poles across the state.
While Tuesday's report stated that a broken lashing wire ignited the Guejito fire, it did not conclude that the break was caused by an overloaded power line.
Nonetheless regulators are worried that power poles may not be able to support the added weight from communications equipment.
“We're concerned about pole overloading,” Clark said.
In a statement yesterday, SDG&E said companies that use its equipment should be required to follow the same inspection rules as the electric company. Between 2004 and 2006, SDG&E workers identified nearly 10,000 equipment infractions by various telecommunications companies, the utility said, and notified them of the findings. The statement didn't specify the nature of those infractions.
“We certainly would support a solid maintenance program for telecommunications companies to maintain their equipment attached to our facilities,” SDG&E said.
Jim Owen of the Edison Electric Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group for power companies, said his members are closely monitoring the issue of pole overloading.
“There's a whole set of issues that go to the safety, reliability and cost of sharing these poles,” he said. “If there's a malfunction associated with telecommunications equipment, our folks may not be able to recognize that or properly address it.”
Neither Cox nor AT&T would discuss the utilities commission's finding that broken lashing wires may be widespread. In a statement, Cox defended its inspection practices and said it would comply with any new regulations.
Time Warner Cable spokesman Marc Farrar said his company would boost its inspection standards if required but said its cable workers already inspect equipment every day.
“When there are lashing wire problems, it's pretty evident,” he said. “You see it manifested in wires crossing other wires or maybe the line between Pole A and Pole B is sagging more than it should.”
Meanwhile, the utilities commission is continuing a separate investigation into how SDG&E secures support wires attached to poles in areas burned by the Witch Creek fire.
Edward Clark, an electrical engineer from Huntington Beach, said early this year that the support cables, known as down-guys, should never be connected to the same bolt because they can become electrified and start fires.
He noted black smudges on numerous cables that appear to show burning, and state investigators opened an investigation.
PUC safety inspectors said that the design technically complies with existing rules but that the requirements would be tightened if the single-bolt method is determined to be unsafe.
Jeff McDonald: (619) 542-4585; jeff.mcdonald@uniontrib.com
