Dive Brief:
- Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Southern California Gas Co. have both been fined by state regulators for gas-related violations found during safety audits.
- The California Public Utilities Commission staff fined PG&E $530,000 for five violations, including failing to immediately excavate and examine pipelines that showed signs of potential corrosion based an indirect assessment.
- CPUC staff issued a $50,000 citation to SoCalGas when during the course of a 2013 audit a utility employee was observed smoking inside a fenced valve station.
Dive Insight:
CPUC staff has issued two citations to PG&E for five violations. In the first, staff fined the utility $430,000 for three violations dealing with federal requirements governing system integrity, including requirements to periodically inspect and test pipelines to identify and repair potentially hazardous defects.
"Among several issues found during the audit, PG&E failed to immediately excavate and examine pipelines that showed signs of potential corrosion based on a process called indirect assessment," CPUC said in a statement. The violations were first found during an audit that began in September 2012, and the violations were subsequently confirmed through additional investigation by CPUC staff that lasted into 2014.
PG&E is still facing massive fines for its role in the San Bruno pipeline explosion of 2010, which killed eight people. And its relationship with state regulators has been under scrutiny following disclosure of improper communications between the commission and utility officials.
PG&E was also fined $100,000 citation for two violations related to a gap in PG&E’s operator qualification procedures that potentially allowed for non-qualified personnel to perform field work. According to staff, the violations, found during an audit that began in November 2013, could create a hazardous condition for the public and utility employees.
Donald Cutler, a spokesman for PG&E, told San Francisco Business Times the utility is "evaluating the citations and it's important for our customers to know that since these audits took place, we've taken action by making significant process improvements."