A massive project by PG&E is underway.
KSBY News looked into why it’s being done and the impact it could have on the number of outages people in wildfire-prone areas experience on the Central Coast.
“Megabundling consists of consolidating multiple electrical projects into one large effort instead of handling them one by one,” said Teresa Alvarado, PG&E Vice President, South Bay and Central Coast.
According to Alvarado, megabundling will help their crews work more efficiently.
PG&E says megabundling is expected to reduce planned outages by about 50% and cut execution costs by 20%.
“By bundling the projects, we can work more efficiently,” said Alvarado. “We can minimize the customer impacts from outages that are needed to do the work, and we can cut costs so that we can pass those savings on to our customers as we work to lower rates.”
Alvarado says North San Luis Obispo County is a high wildfire risk area.
She told KSBY News PG&E is investing in significant infrastructure upgrades for 5,000 customers in Creston, Santa Margarita, Pozo, and Atascadero.
“Through this work, we will be replacing 677 utility poles,” Alvarado said. “We're upgrading dozens of cross arms, high voltage signs, and we're tightening hundreds of miles of wire so that it's more resilient and better able to withstand severe weather.”
She added that this project is critical to reduce wildfire risk due to the changing weather patterns on the Central Coast.
“With these stronger poles and hardware, we will also have wider cross arms, which means that the wires will be further apart and it's less likely that birds or other debris will drop onto the lines and cause a fire or cause an outage,” explained Alvarado.
KSBY News talked to residents in North San Luis Obispo County about how they feel about this project.
“Anything they can do to mitigate outages and wildfires, I’m all for,” said Tamara Stavrianoudakis, owner of Upscale Resale Women's Designer Consignor Boutique.
“If that helps, that would help a lot,” added Atascadero resident Fermin Rodriguez.
PG&E says its Templeton 2113 project is expected to be completed by October 2025.
