Substation Inspection Program

Mission Substation Incident

The event occurred on December 20, 2003 during the peak Christmas shopping season A fire occurred in a 12kV cable feeding a switch on the second floor of a 3 story indoor substation The substation receives power from 115kV underground cables and distributes 4 and 12kV within SF The fire caused a complete outage of the substation, effecting about 100,000 customers, some for as long as 32 hours

Timeline

15:51The network cable failed explosively. No customers lost power 15:51A circuit breaker protecting the N bus also operated 17:24The fire migrated to a bus duct above the switch and the burning bus caused the circuit breaker protecting another switch cabinet to operate, causing an outage to 3112 customers

Timeline

17:42A switchman was sent to Mission substation to investigate the incident 17:57All transmission circuit breakers were opened, causing an outage to approximately 100,000 customers

Section of Damaged N Bus

The Damaged Cable

Investigation

CPUC assembled a team of engineers, analysts and attorneys to investigate the incident. During one of the interviews, the CPUC asked if there had been any previous incidents at Mission Substation involving fire. Yes, a previous incident occurred in 1996. The incident was very similar to the fire that occurred in 2003.

Mission Substation Incident1996

A vertically installed PILC cable caught on fire Smoke from that fire caused a short across the N bus Around 1:00am, a PG&E employee went to the substation to use a restroom and discovered the fire.

Mission Substation Incident1996

Three key recommendations from that investigation were:

Initiate fire penetration sealing program

between floors. Review procedures for responding to abnormal operating conditions, such as circuit breaker trips Evaluate a cost effective method of smoke detection.

Mission Substation Incident

PG&E did not implement any of the key recommendations at Mission Substation by the time the incident occurred in 2003. CPUC published its report CPUC moved toward an Order Instituting Investigation (OII)

Mission Substation Incident

PG&E disputed our finding that the remedial measures would have made a difference. PG&E decided to settle the dispute via the Mission substation settlement agreement.

Settlement

PG&E, the City and County of San Francisco and the CPUC agreed that PG&E will pay $6.5 million, to various causes:

$500,000 to the States General Fund $3.0 million for reliability improvements to PG&E $750,000 for a fire safety program for SFFD $750,000 for CCSF to build needed infrastructure to improve public safety $1.0 million for a Hunters Point Substation Improvement Program $500,000 to support the Commissions undertaking to create a substation inspection program.

Creation of Inspection Program

Meet with Five Investor Owned Utilities (PG&E, PP&L, SCE, SDG&E & SPP) Attended Training and Conferences concerning Substations and Equipment Attended CAISO audits of Utilitys Substation Programs

Two Choices

Prescriptive

Performance

Benefits Easy to Audit Easier to Understand Easily defined criteria Problems May require work to be done that is not needed Does not account for differences

Benefits Gives utilities flexibility Accounts for differences

Construction Environment Operation

Problems Harder to audit

Picked Middle Ground

Proposed General Order has both Prescriptive Parts and Performance Based Parts

The Proposed General Order (As written today)

Six Sections

General Provisions Definitions / Acronyms Construction Requirements Operation and Maintenance Program Reporting Requirements Maps and Drawings

13 pages

Section I General Provisions

Purpose Applicability Scope of Rules* Investigation of Accidents Saving Clause

These rules are not intended as complete construction, inspection, or maintenance specifications, but embody only the minimum requirements which are most important from the standpoint of safety and reliability of service.

Section II Definitions / Acronyms

Defines key terms used throughout the general order Example

Visual Inspections are inspections that are designed to identify obvious problems and hazards.

Section III Construction Requirements

General Provisions Guarding Marking Safety Factor Requirements Secondary Oil Containment Switches

Section IV Operation and Maintenance Program

General Provisions Inspection Procedures Maintenance Procedures

Section V Reporting Requirements

Operation and Maintenance Plan Utilities must file a copy of their Operation and Maintenance Plan yearly CPSD Audits Pre Inspection Report due 30 Calendar Days before Audit

Section VI Maps and Drawings

Types of Maps and Drawings

Single Line Diagram Meter and Relay Drawing Physical Layout (e.g. Architectural drawings)

Map/Drawing Updates

180 Days

Creation of Inspection Program (The Future)

Before an OIR is opened will meet with:

Electric Utilities Rail Transit Agencies

Legal Review of the Proposed General Order Open an OIR

Workshops Briefings Hearings???

Start Inspections

Questions