PG&E Expands Plans To Relocate Gas Operations Personnel, Adds Electric Transmissions

Acquisition of additional space at San Ramon facility underscores focus on safety by centralizing staff for increased collaboration and coordination of operations

News provided by

Pacific Gas and Electric Company

Oct 03, 2012, 07:15 ET

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) today announced it has signed a 10-year lease on additional space at Bishop Ranch in San Ramon, Calif., adjacent to 6121 Bollinger Canyon Road, which the company acquired in March 2012 to build a state-of-the-art gas control center. The new facility, 6111 Bollinger Canyon Road, will now accommodate approximately 700 staff from gas operations and electric transmission operations in more than 145,000 square feet.

The expansion of PG&E's footprint at Bishop Ranch further reinforces its continuous improvement effort to ensure public and staff safety and improve reliability and operational performance. By bringing teams together that have typically been dispersed across the Bay Area, PG&E will increase collaboration and coordination across its gas operations and electric transmission operations – a significant development that will further improve the safety and reliability of its operations and 24/7 monitoring of its systems.

The new building is five stories, of which PG&E staff will occupy two full floors and a partial third floor, with other third-party corporate tenants occupying the remainder of the space. Approximately 260 electric transmission operations staff from Oakland, Concord and San Francisco and 450 gas staff will occupy the second, third and fourth floors. Those relocating to 6111 Bollinger Canyon Road are scheduled to move mid-2013.

PG&E conducts regular evaluations of its facilities to determine if they are well-suited to ensure the safe, reliable operations of the electric system both now and in the future. As part of these evaluations, PG&E determined that its electric transmissions operations would be enhanced by relocating from the aging building at 1919 Webster in Oakland to a more modern and larger office. The new facility at 6111 Bollinger Canyon Road is designed with large floor plans allowing PG&E to house Electric Transmission Line & Substation Engineering and Design, System Protection, System Automation, Project Management & Asset Strategy functions on one contiguous floor under the same roof.

The company already has a significant footprint in San Ramon including 3401 Crow Canyon, San Ramon Valley Conference Center, and San Ramon Technology Center. The new facility is in addition to the 250,000 square foot space that PG&E leased at 6121 Bollinger Canyon Road in the Bishop Ranch business community. About 1,000 people could occupy that location by year's end, which is set to include the state-of-the-art gas control center, expected to be complete by mid-2013. The center will be responsible for monitoring PG&E's vast network of gas distribution and transmission pipelines 24 hours a day.

The facilities at Bishop Ranch are well-designed and constructed using the latest building codes to help facilitate safe operations in the event of seismic activity. This was a major consideration, as the building will house PG&E staff, records and engineering plans that are critical to the safe operation of its gas operations and electric transmission systems.

In September 2012, Gas Operations began relocating staff to 6121 Bollinger Canyon Road. Moves will continue in waves through mid-2013.

ABOUT PG&E
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is one of the largest combined natural gas and electric utilities in the United States. Based in San Francisco, with 20,000 employees, the company delivers some of the nation's cleanest energy to 15 million people in Northern and Central California. For more information, visit http://www.pge.com/about/newsroom/ and www.pgecurrents.com.

ABOUT BISHOP RANCH
Bishop Ranch (www.bishopranch.com), developed by Sunset Development Company, is located on 585 acres adjacent to 1-680 in the San Ramon Valley in Contra Costa County. Recognized by the prestigious Urban Land Institute for excellence in design and development, Bishop Ranch includes more than 10 million square feet of office space in 14 complexes. It is home to more than 550 companies and their respective 30,000 employees. The business community includes corporate office space to more than 35 Fortune 500 companies, as well as dining, shopping and hotel accommodations.

SOURCE Pacific Gas and Electric Company