Did Kincade Fire threatening Geyserville start at geothermal power plant?

The raging wildfire threatening Geyserville north of San Francisco erupted around The Geysers, the world’s largest complex of geothermal plants where steam from deep in the ground has been tapped for nearly a century to produce electricity.

Initial fire dispatch reports indicated the fire started — possibly with wires down — at 9:27 p.m. Wednesday, even as Pacific Gas and Electric Co. had cut power to nearly 28,000 households and businesses in the area that afternoon to reduce wildfire risk.

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“A vegetation fire reported as in The Geysers,” a Sonoma County Fire and Cal Fire dispatcher reported around 9:27 p.m. Wednesday. “Also possible power lines down in the area — all units acknowledge life safety hazard.”

The fire’s cause remains under investigation. Will Powers, a spokesman with Cal Fire — the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection — said Thursday there are no confirmed reports of power lines being down in the area and the dispatcher’s advisory may have just been a precaution.

“I don’t have any reports of lines down,” Powers said. “I haven’t had any confirmation of that.”

But PG&E late Thursday acknowledged it had a problem with a transmission line in The Geysers area around the time the fire ignited.

“At approximately 9:20 p.m. on October 23, 2019, PG&E became aware of a transmission level outage on the Geysers #9 Lakeville 230kV line when the line relayed and did not reclose, deenergizing the line,” PG&E reported in a regulatory filing Thursday.

The utility said that around 7:30 a.m. Thursday, a responding PG&E “troubleman” patrolling the Geysers #9 Lakeville 230 kV line saw that Cal Fire had taped off the area around the base of a transmission tower identified as “001/006” in the area of the Kincade Fire.

“On site Cal Fire personnel brought to the troubleman’s attention what appeared to be a broken jumper on the same tower,” PG&E said in its filing, adding that the tower was inspected earlier this year as part of PG&E’s Wildfire Safety Inspection Program.

PG&E said that although its “distribution lines” to customers in the area were “deenergized” as part of its “public safety power shutdown” to reduce risk of electrical wires being blown down and starting fires, its major “transmission lines in these areas remained energized.”

“Those transmission lines were not deenergized because forecast weather conditions, particularly wind speeds, did not” reach levels, which are higher for transmission than distribution lines, that would warrant cutting power to them under the shutdown protocol. The utility noted it is continuing to investigate and that “the information is preliminary.”

The Geyserville area saw winds of 21 mph and gusts up to 42 mph around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, peaking around midnight with sustained winds of 52 mph with gusts up to 76 mph, said National Weather Service Meteorologist Drew Peterson. Sustained winds of 39-54 mph are considered gale force, while a hurricane has sustained winds over 74 mph.

Calpine, a Houston-based energy company and the largest geothermal power producer in the U.S., owns and operates 13 power plants at The Geysers that generate up to 725 megawatts of electricity — enough to power a city the size of San Francisco. Fire dispatchers indicated the fire was first reported near some of its geothermal plants.

Calpine spokesman Brett Kerr said that “due to the wind conditions, we had de-energized our local power line system before the fire started.”

“We do not believe our facilities caused the fire,” Kerr said, but added: “There are power lines operated by third parties across The Geysers.”

“The Kincade Fire flashed through a portion of our Geysers geothermal facilities late yesterday,” Kerr said. “All employees are safe and accounted for. We believe there is relatively minor damage to our facilities and further threat has passed. As safety permits and daylight arrives, we will conduct a thorough assessment. Some of our operations have been temporarily suspended but we expect production will resume very soon.”

The Kincade Fire has burned 21,900 acres and destroyed 49 homes and commercial buildings around Geyserville, a Sonoma County Wine Country hamlet north of San Francisco.

The steam beds have a rich history. Tribal people had come to the area for healing and ceremonies. In the mid-1800s the steam beds became a tourist destination. According to Calpine, entrepreneurs in 1923 built a 35-kilowatt power plant there that produced the first geothermal electricity in the Americas. PG&E in 1960 opened the first commercial geothermal plant at The Geysers, and Calpine began operating plants there in 1989.

Fire dispatchers Wednesday night indicated the Kincade Fire originated in the area of Kincade Road and Burned Mountain Road “at The Geysers 9 and 10,” plants. They coordinated access for firefighters with Calpine, which operated the plants.

PG&E equipment has been blamed for sparking a host of recent devastating wildfires, including many deadly blazes that roared through the Wine Country in 2017, as well as the Camp Fire that destroyed the town of Paradise east of Chico last year, the state’s deadliest and most destructive.

Facing multi-billion dollar liability claims, PG&E in January filed for bankruptcy protection. PG&E began initiating “public safety power shutoffs” last year, something San Diego Gas and Electric has used effectively to reduce wildfire danger since the deadly 2007 Witch Fire. PG&E was criticized for its decision not to de-energize high-voltage lines near Paradise during strong fall winds that sparked the Camp Fire.

Wednesday’s power shutoffs in the Wine Country, Sierra Foothills and parts of the coast between San Francisco and Santa Cruz, are the second largest PG&E has initiated to date, following an even larger blackout over much of the Bay Area and Northern California two weeks ago. With strong dry winds in the forecast, additional outages may be needed this weekend, PG&E said