After the latest distressing round of California wildfires and blackouts, more needs to be done to improve, not just rebuild, the aged power grid now recognized as causing some of the fires. Fixing the fragile system has been on the infrastructure to-do list for years. The rising Western wildfire threat is the newest problem to rise to the top. A system rebuild must avoid simply restoring it to status quo.
In our view, any upgrades must create “cornerstones” for a system that includes hardened infrastructure, buried lines and distributed generation. The hardening techniques are well known: raise seawalls, restore natural coastal protections, move generating plants or transmission and distribution lines, and expand tree-trimming. Using better materials, such as high-temperature, low-sag conductors—line sag led to the 2003 Northeast blackout—also helps.