Are Public Safety Planned Shutoffs Necessary?

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif., Oct. 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Over the past several weeks, PG&E and other utilities in California have scheduled Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) to prevent electrical equipment from starting the types of wildfires that have devastated the state in recent years.

These outages are more than just inconvenient – they are costly. Just this year the state set aside $75 million to assist local governments during the outages, in addition to the untold cost of lost perishable food and loss of business productivity. The shutoffs also create tremendous problems for residents who may not have the resources to deal with extended power outages.

While we acknowledge the need for keeping the public safe, is there a better way?

Our company, Perimeter Solutions, makes a product that we believe can limit or possibly even eliminate the need for these planned shutdowns – PHOS-CHEK®. This product, manufactured here in California, is a long-term fire retardant that's been used for more than 50 years by both the U.S. Forest Service and CalFire to stop the spread of wildfires. This product can be used to limit the number of planned outages by preventing sparks from starting catastrophic fires. PHOS-CHEK® is the "red stuff" you see coming out of air tankers during wildfires. This year, a colorless formulation of the product was introduced to the consumer market under the name PHOS-CHEK® Wildfire Home Defense. See this news release for details: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/perimeter-solutions-launches-phos-chek-wildfire-home-defense-300886568.html

Several utility companies currently use this product to treat power poles in advance of a wildfire to prevent destruction, and many communities across California use PHOS-CHEK® during holiday fireworks and other community gatherings to allow those events to continue safely. In fact, Pasadena has used PHOS-CHEK® during Rose Bowl festivities each year.

Which leads us back to the question – why are California utilities continuing to rely on PSPSs when there is a better way? We believe strongly that PHOS-CHEK® can play an integral role for power companies to both prevent fires and limit the need for PSPSs. We'd be happy to work with California's utilities and state regulatory agencies to explore whether PHOS-CHEK® can limit the number of PSPSs state residents need to endure this fire season.

Contact: Rob Pasquinucci, [email protected], (513) 604-3556

SOURCE Perimeter Solutions

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