Opinion: How shutting off power makes it harder to fight fires

The widespread power shutoffs by electric utilities to prevent wildfires have ushered in a new era for Californians — a scenario all too real for millions of people who reside in high-risk fire areas. While these recent shutoffs are well-intentioned, we should apply some lessons learned from them to minimize the public safety, economic and societal impacts on our state and communities.

We understand the need for shutting off power to prevent wildfires, but the very point of cutting power could affect a critical tool to fight fires: water. That’s not only ironic but potentially catastrophic.

Water utilities such as California Water Service rely on electricity to provide water for everyday and emergency needs. If a water utility experiences a sudden outage — or goes without electricity in a wide area or for a prolonged period — its ability to provide water service could be reduced or interrupted. Cal Water has gone to great lengths to decrease this risk — including purchasing more than 60 portable emergency generators for the 2 million customers we serve from Westlake to Willows to supplement the permanent generators we’ve already been installing over recent decades, staging these generators at critical sites, making sure there is plenty of fuel available to run them, and having personnel prepared to support a multi-day event around the clock.

At a certain point, however, no power equals no water, and no water means real problems, not just for water utilities but also for other critical service providers such as hospitals, law enforcement and communications carrier infrastructure.

We fully recognize the economic and emotional toll the power shutoffs have on everyone affected. Schools cancel classes. Day cares close. Businesses shut down, resulting in lost revenue and lost wages for employees. Groceries are spoiled because of lack of refrigeration. There are many, many unintended consequences that need to be factored in, carefully planned for and ultimately accounted for.

From a public policy standpoint, critical service providers need a more reliable structure than the current Public Safety Power Shutoff system provides. Right now, all power in designated areas is shut off without prioritizing.

That needs to change.

We need a more precise and prioritized system for the way power shutoffs are implemented. We need updated guidelines to keep the power running to critical service providers and water utilities, such as Cal Water, because if a fire breaks out, we’re going to need water to put it out.

On behalf of the 2 million people we are honored to serve, we look forward to seeing structural changes that will ensure we have the power we need to provide water, especially when it’s needed the most by our state’s firefighters.

Martin A. Kropelnicki is president and chief executive officer of California Water Service, the state’s second-largest water utility and the largest regulated water utility west of the Mississippi River. The utility, which serves about 2 million people through 486,900 service connections in the state, from Chico in the north to the Palos Verdes Peninsula in the south, has provided water service in California since 1926.