--- title: "PG&E may black out 70,000 customers after investigators tied a founder's death to a wire it failed to replace" description: "A rusted tie wire killed ag-tech founder Steven Dodge in 2022, after PG&E's own inspectors had logged the same failure on poles nearby. That record is now part of the file regulators will read before deciding what ratepayers repay for PG&E's shrunken undergrounding plan, the grid California's data centers are queuing to join." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Power" published: 2026-10-14T17:34:14.392Z modified: 2026-10-14T17:34:14.392Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/pg-e-may-black-out-70-000-customers-after-investigators-tied-a-founder-s-death-to-a-wire-it-failed-to-replace language: en keywords: "PG&E, Wildfires, California, Data Centers, Grid" --- # PG&E may black out 70,000 customers after investigators tied a founder's death to a wire it failed to replace > A rusted tie wire killed ag-tech founder Steven Dodge in 2022, after PG&E's own inspectors had logged the same failure on poles nearby. That record is now part of the file regulators will read before deciding what ratepayers repay for PG&E's shrunken undergrounding plan, the grid California's data centers are queuing to join. [Pacific Gas and Electric](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/pg-e-corporation), California's largest utility, [may have to switch off power to about 70,000 customers from this evening through Saturday](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/high-winds-dry-conditions-mean-pge-may-need-to-proactively-turn-off-power-for-safety-wednesday-evening-in-portions-of-twenty-nine-counties-302907621.html), because forecast winds make its overhead lines dangerous to keep energized [1]. The same week added two entries to the safety record that explains those shutoffs. [State investigators tied a founder's 2022 death to maintenance PG&E's own inspectors had documented years earlier](https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/pge-power-line-steven-dodge-death/4157562/) [2]. The utility also filed a ten-year plan burying about 7,000 of the 10,000 miles it promised after the 2021 Dixie Fire [3]. ## The wire that killed him had a paper trail Steven Dodge was 34, co-founder of Acuity Agriculture, an ag-tech startup building remote monitoring tools for farmers, when he was killed at a King City-area farm in Monterey County [2]. The tie wire binding a 12,000-volt line to its insulator had rusted through, and the falling conductor struck him as he tested remote equipment on a raised irrigation platform [2]. State investigators found PG&E responsible for failing to properly replace or reinforce that wire, years after its own inspectors logged the same rusting failure on two poles nearby [2]. No fine followed, and his widow's wrongful-death suit settled privately [2]. ## The same failure kept burning the state Tie-wire failures had already sparked at least two wildfires, one near King City and one in Kern County, before Dodge died [2]. This year regulators also cited PG&E for loose tie wires, and the utility agreed a $22 million settlement with the California Public Utilities Commission [2]. [The commission approved that penalty in August over the 2022 Mosquito Fire](https://www.kcra.com/article/pge-fined-22-million-mosquito-fire-placer-county/73436951), finding violations in design, construction and maintenance that PG&E denied [4]. A former commission president, Loretta Lynch, calls the agency's handling of these failures "a clear dereliction of duty" [2]. ## Burial earns a return, a tightened wire does not The money likely explains why burial got funded and tie-wire repair did not. Under California rate regulation, PG&E [earns a return on the capital the state approves for what it buries](https://theinference.org/article/pg-e-filed-a-decade-of-burying-wires-the-day-sacramento-voted-to-cut-the-profit-on-burying-wires), while a tightened wire is maintenance, an expense [5]. The filed plan even [books avoided maintenance as a benefit, about $6 billion of it](https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/2026/10/13/pge-to-move-157-miles-of-power-lines-in-santa-cruz-county-underground/) [3]. ## The pledge shrank the same week the record landed [The plan, filed with the state's energy safety office on September 30](https://www.pge.com/en/outages-and-safety/safety/community-wildfire-safety-program/electrical-undergrounding-plan.html), buries about 1,900 miles by the end of 2027 [3][5]. From 2028 through 2037 it buries 5,000 more, with the rest of the original promise met by stronger poles and covered lines [5]. PG&E calls that "not a reduction" and values the plan's long-term benefits at $117 billion [3]. Mark Toney of the ratepayer group TURN praised the cut, because it is "extremely expensive to underground lines" [6]. *Chart: **PG&E's filed plan buries about 7,000 of its promised 10,000 miles** Bar chart with three bars: the 10,000 miles promised after the 2021 Dixie Fire, about 1,900 miles underground by the end of 2027, and 5,000 miles planned for 2028 through 2037.* *Miles of distribution line: the 2021 pledge versus the ten-year plan PG&E filed with the California Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety on September 30, 2026, now pending approval. [3][5]* ## The AI queue waits on the same poles PG&E reports [a 12.7-gigawatt pipeline of data-center power requests](https://finance.yahoo.com/energy/articles/pg-e-ceo-says-ai-140202187.html), growth its chief executive, Patti Poppe, says the grid has not seen in decades [7]. Wildfire-liability reform that took the legislature two years fell short, the credit-rating agency Fitch reportedly cut PG&E's outlook to negative, and the utility trimmed its planned 2027 investment by about $2 billion [7]. The pressure behind that trim shows in the quarterly accounts: [capital spending has outrun operating cash in ten of the last twelve quarters](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001004980) [8]. The gap is closed with borrowing whose extra cost customers have already paid, about $600 million over two years [7]. The shares are down about a quarter this year [7]. *Chart: **Grid capex has outrun operating cash in ten of the last twelve quarters** Line chart of two series over twelve quarters: quarterly capital spending, trending between roughly $2.3 billion and $3.4 billion, sits above operating cash flow in ten of the twelve quarters, with the widest gaps in winter quarters.* *Quarterly capital spending and operating cash flow, PG&E Corporation, Q3 2023 through Q2 2026, from its SEC filings. [8]* ## Even the blackout is aimed by software This week's shutoff is scoped with machine learning: new modeling tools, PG&E says, "allow us to be more surgical when scoping," with wind-gust models run at the weather-station level filling gaps between coarser forecasts [1]. The utility is applying AI to aim a blackout made necessary by hardware it failed to maintain. If the wires come slower, the hookups behind the 12.7-gigawatt queue come slower too. ## The price gets set in two reviews The sequence from here is fixed. The state energy office reviews the plan first, then the CPUC conditionally decides what ratepayers repay [5]. State energy officials have already told utilities to assess tie-wire fire risk [2], and the Mosquito settlement shows the tool the commission has used once: an independent review of PG&E's inspection practices, paid for by the penalty [4]. For anyone funding California compute, the CPUC's decision, and whether it ties repayment to maintenance evidence as well as to buried miles, is the schedule to watch. ## Takeaway Regulators will read PG&E's tie-wire record as they decide what ratepayers repay for the shrunken undergrounding plan; that decision, and whether it rewards maintenance as well as buried miles, sets how fast California's data centers get power. ## Sources 1. [PG&E via PRNewswire, "High Winds, Dry Conditions Mean PG&E May Need to Proactively Turn Off Power for Safety Wednesday Evening in Portions of Twenty-Nine Counties", 13 October 2026](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/high-winds-dry-conditions-mean-pge-may-need-to-proactively-turn-off-power-for-safety-wednesday-evening-in-portions-of-twenty-nine-counties-302907621.html) 2. [NBC Bay Area, "San Francisco ag-tech entrepreneur's death tied to rusting wire that had supported PG&E power line", 13 October 2026](https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/pge-power-line-steven-dodge-death/4157562/) 3. [Santa Cruz Sentinel, "PG&E to move 157 miles of power lines in Santa Cruz County underground", 13 October 2026](https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/2026/10/13/pge-to-move-157-miles-of-power-lines-in-santa-cruz-county-underground/) 4. [KCRA 3, "PG&E fined $22 million for Mosquito Fire in Placer County", 14 August 2026](https://www.kcra.com/article/pge-fined-22-million-mosquito-fire-placer-county/73436951) 5. [PG&E, "10-Year Electrical Undergrounding Plan" (plan filed 30 September 2026, pending Energy Safety approval), retrieved 14 October 2026](https://www.pge.com/en/outages-and-safety/safety/community-wildfire-safety-program/electrical-undergrounding-plan.html) 6. [NBC Bay Area via MSN, "PG&E seeks to scale back 10,000-mile powerline undergrounding plan", 7 October 2026](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/pg-e-seeks-to-scale-back-10000-mile-powerline-undergrounding-plan/ar-AA2dLZuq) 7. [Yahoo Finance (StockTwits), "PG&E CEO Says AI Data Centers Are Boosting California's Power Demand But Wildfire Liability Reform Remains A 'Real Challenge'", 30 September 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/energy/articles/pg-e-ceo-says-ai-140202187.html) 8. [PG&E Corporation, quarterly capital spending and operating cash flow from its SEC filings, retrieved 14 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001004980) --- PG&E may black out 70,000 customers after investigators tied a founder's death to a wire it failed to replace — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/pg-e-may-black-out-70-000-customers-after-investigators-tied-a-founder-s-death-to-a-wire-it-failed-to-replace