To: Board of Supervisors
From: Public Works
Agenda Section: Consent
SUBJECT:
title
Report of Pacific Gas & Electric Rule 20A Work Credits and Status of Undergrounding Projects
end
RECOMMENDATION(S):
Recommendation
That the Board of Supervisors:
1. Receive and file the 2021 Rule 20A Allocation and Work Credit Balance Report from Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E).
Body
SOURCE OF FUNDING:
Rule 20A Utility Underground Fund
DISCUSSION:
The County of Humboldt currently has $2,189,860 in work credits available through PG&E for undergrounding of overhead utility lines (Attachment 1). The funds are derived from tariffs that are calculated based upon 50% of the number of PG&E's overhead electric meters and 50% of the total electric meters within each community. The funds can only be used for the purpose of undergrounding utilities and only when meeting criteria established by the California Public Utilities Commission.
In 2013, the Board of Supervisors revised the county's Utility Conversion Plan (Attachment 2). The plan identifies future undergrounding projects and prioritizes them. Since that time, one project has been completed. In 2016, the School Road (East) undergrounding project was constructed.
PG&E is in the process of engineering the Garberville Underground project. PG&E anticipated that construction would commence in 2021. Due to COVID-19, this did not happen. PG&E has not provided the department with an updated timeline.
The Public Utility Commission is sunsetting the Rule 20A program. The Rural County Representatives of California has an excellent summary describing the state of the Rule 20A program (Attachment 3). As noted in Attachment 1, the county will be receiving only one (1) more installment of work credits. It is anticipated that there will be sufficient work credits to construct the Garberville project. Because the Garberville project is underway, it will not be cancelled. It is not known what the successor program to the Rule...
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