Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has announced that it has completed the construction and energization of 1,000 miles of underground powerlines in areas with high wildfire risk. The company states that this initiative represents the largest effort by a utility to reduce wildfire risk through undergrounding. In regions where these lines serve customers, the move is said to eliminate nearly all wildfire risk associated with above-ground lines.
Since 2023, PG&E reports that its system hardening initiatives—including undergrounding, reinforcing overhead poles and wires, and removing certain lines—have led to a permanent reduction of 8.4% in wildfire ignition risk across its network. For context, driving from the Oregon-California border to the California-Mexico border covers about 932 miles, illustrating the scale of the project.
“Putting 1,000 miles of powerlines underground is a significant milestone for our customers as we work to reduce wildfire risk every day,” said Peter Kenny, PG&E’s senior vice president of Electric Operations. “When our CEO, Patti Poppe, announced in 2021 that we would put thousands of miles of powerlines underground, skeptics said it couldn’t be done. Well, not only are we at 1,000 miles and counting, but we also have substantially reduced the cost for our customers as we’ve scaled up our work.”
The new underground powerlines now provide service in high fire-risk zones across 27 counties in Northern and Central California. Butte County leads with 337 miles completed; Shasta County follows with 119 miles. Other counties such as El Dorado, Lake, Placer, Plumas and Solano each have more than 50 miles of buried lines.
Looking ahead, PG&E projects reaching a total of 1,600 miles of undergrounded powerlines by the end of 2026. This expansion is expected to bring an overall wildfire risk reduction across PG&E’s system to about 18%.
The cost per mile for placing lines underground has decreased from $4 million at the start of the program to $3.1 million in 2025. PG&E attributes these savings to various innovations and anticipates further reductions going forward.
With increased fire risks throughout the western United States, PG&E says it continues efforts aimed at both immediate safety improvements and long-term community protection while working toward greater reliability and lower costs.
Matt Pender, vice president of Undergrounding and System Hardening at PG&E, highlighted his team’s ongoing commitment: “It feels amazing to be making a difference that will last for many, many years, for decades, by putting these lines underground and reducing wildfire risk for the long run,” he said.
A report from Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment recognized PG&E as one of the nation’s top utilities for wildfire readiness. The report gave PG&E’s Wildfire Mitigation Plan a Tier 1 maturity rating—the highest possible score.
Further information about PG&E’s wildfire safety programs can be found on their website: pge.com/wildfiresafetyprogess.
PG&E serves more than 16 million people over approximately 70,000 square miles in Northern and Central California. More details are available at pge.com or pge.com/news.
