How PG&E Plans to Fix Local Bottlenecks for Electrical Connections

There has been a bottleneck for new or significantly upgraded electrical connections to commercial and residential developments in certain areas of the North Bay in the past few years.

The Journal in 2022 and 2023 reported on this problem that challenged some planned construction and newly completed projects in industrial parks in the Sonoma County airport area and in northern Solano County.

Since then, the utility serving Northern California, Pacific Gas & Electric Co., has been preparing to upgrade the systems.

“We don’t want customers or developers assuming that there's not power available. They certainly should reach out to us, file an application,“ said Dave Canny, North Coast regional vice president.

The utility has developed an external-facing capacity tool to help customers check availability.

Here’s what Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has planned to fix these challenges in the next few years:

— The Fulton substation in north Santa Rosa, which serves the airport area, is set to get a distribution capacity upgrade from 60 megawatts now to 73 by the end of next year to 90 megawatts by early 2028.

“That will be replacing a large transformer in the substation, as well as building a circuit to go from the substation to the airport area,” said Mike McCarthy, an engineer for electrical distribution systems for PG&E.

— The Monroe substation serving south Santa Rosa will add 20 megawatts by next year.

— The Vacaville (Vaca-Dixon) substation is set to get another 12 to 13 megawatts by year-end or early 2026.

“Amazon warehouses, EV chargers, and several interested customers in northern Solano County who want to bring their businesses to that area,“ said Alex Ly, an engineer supervisor for the utility’s electric distribution planning.

Phil Souza, North Coast service manager, said the process has improved, particularly for repeat developers.

“There is a substantial increase in how fast we can move them through the process” because they become familiar with document requirements, Souza said.