How does it affect your EID services? How EID has been preparing. And, what you can and need to do to be prepared.

EID personnel, in preparation for the resumption and expansion of power outages from the 2018 initiation of PG&E's Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) program continue to work closely with PG&E to prepare our facilities so that we can continue our critical services to customers during a called outage.

EID’s water, wastewater, recycled water, and hydroelectric systems, as well as its recreation operations rely upon uninterrupted electrical power through approximately 170 separate electrical service connections from PG&E in order to ensure safe and reliable operations. Most of these connections directly supply the electricity for the drinking water and wastewater treatment, distribution, pumping, and hydropower generation facilities critical to the 24/7 operational needs for these facilities.

In 2018, PG&E rolled out its Community Wildfire Safety Program (CWSP), which included planned outages under the PSPS program.  In spring of 2019, PG&E announced that it would significantly expand the program in response to increasing fire hazards across its service area.

The EID Board of Directors, recognizing the critical need to ensure uninterrupted power and increasing risk to maintaining water and wastewater service under PG&E’s PSPS program, unanimously approved over $800,000 in the past year alone for the purchase and installation of a number of back up electrical generators at critical sites. These recent acquisitions are in addition to dozens of generators EID has previously invested in and deployed at key locations to maintain water and wastewater services to its more than 110,000 customers.

For long term critical needs, District staff is also working with the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) to obtain more than $1.4 million in grants through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Hazard Mitigation Grant Program to acquire additional generators and increase the resiliency of our critical infrastructure.Preparation for Extended Outages

While EID’s backup power resiliency has increased in response to PG&E’s expanded PSPS program, EID encourages everyone to prepare for possible multi-day outages.

• Have an emergency supply of drinking water available.
• During a power outage, minimize water usage to only critical health and safety needs to help EID maintain service to its customers.
• Plan for medical needs such as medications that may require refrigeration or devices that need power.
• Identify backup charging methods for phones and keep hard copies of emergency numbers.
• Build or restock your emergency kit with flashlights, fresh batteries, first aid supplies, and cash.
• Sign up for alerts about PSPS events by going to PrepareForPowerdown.com.
• Subscribe to other emergency management notifications by visiting El Dorado County's Emergency Preparedness Information webpage.
• Subscribe to updates on the EID website under eNews Sign Up and select the PG&E PSPS  news category, also “like” our Facebook page @ElDoradoIrrigationDistrict, and ensure your contact information on file with us is up to date.

EID is committed to providing the continued 24/7 service our customers rely on throughout this period. However, since the extent of PG&E’s outages will not be fully known until the day of the event in response to localized weather conditions, it is not possible to know in advance where potential interruptions to water and wastewater services could occur.  As such, we want all customers to be prepared to safely handle any emergency and respond to our calls for water conservation.

EID will notify customers immediately prior to and during PSPS events when we obtain information from PG&E regarding outage locations and are able to evaluate how such outages are anticipated to impact our ability to maintain drinking water and wastewater treatments services.

To help ensure we can maintain communication on this important public safety matter we ask customers to ensure that they have accurate contact details on file with us. You may email our customer service group at billing@eid.org, call them at 530.642.4000, or complete the Update My Account form on our website to update your information.

July 22, 2019 Board Agenda Item and PowerPoint Presentation - Item # 7 Page 200

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