final-cov-wild-fire-mitigation-plan-2023-and-evaluation.pdf — PaddleOCR-VL (Baidu)

WILDFIRE MITIGATION PLAN REQUIREMENTS

A. Senate Bill 901

Senate Bill (SB) 901 (2018) requires all publicly owned electric utilities (POUs), including Victorville Municipal Utility Services (VMUS), to prepare and present a wildfire mitigation plan (WMP) to its governing board prior to January 1, 2020, and annually thereafter. SB 901 identifies specific topics that must be addressed in each POU's WMP, including describing the POU's wildfire mitigation preventative strategies and programs. POUs must also have their plan reviewed by a qualified independent evaluator to assess the comprehensiveness of the plan.

This report serves as VMUS' independent evaluation in compliance with SB 901.

B. AB 1054 & AB 111

Assembly Bill (AB) 1054 (2019) and AB 111 (2019) created a new state agency called the California Wildfire Safety Advisory Board ("Board"), which will be made up of seven members, five appointed by the Governor, one appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly, and one appointed by the Senate Rules Committee. SB 1054 requires that every POU must submit its WMP to the Board by July 1 of each year, staring in 2020. The Board will then review the POU WMP and provide comments and advisory opinions on the content and sufficiency of the WMP.

C. POU WMP REQUIREMENTS

California Public Utilities Code (PUC) § 8387(b)(2) lists the statutory requirements for POU WMPs. These are the specific elements that the Victorville Fire Department (VFD) must review in order to make its determination for this report. The following list provides the specific elements that must be addressed in a POU WMP:

Responsibilities: An accounting of the responsibilities of persons responsible for executing the plan. (PUC § 8387(b)(2)(A))
Objectives: The objectives of the wildfire mitigation plan. (PUC § 8387(b)(2)(B))
Preventive Strategies: A description of the preventive strategies and programs to be adopted by the local publicly owned electric utility or electrical cooperative to minimize the risk of its electrical lines and equipment causing catastrophic wildfires, including consideration of dynamic climate change risks. (PUC § 8387(b)(2)(C))
Evaluation Metrics: A description of the metrics the local publicly owned electric utility or electrical cooperative plans to use to evaluate the wildfire mitigation plan's performance and the assumptions that underlie the use of those metrics. (PUC § 8387(b)(2)(D))