Pacific Gas and Electric has buried 1,370 miles of power lines underground
Pacific Gas and Electric has buried more than 1,370 miles of power lines underground since starting this specific program in 2021, past the 1,000 mile mark it passed a year earlier. It plans to reach more than 1,900 miles by the end of 2027. An underground line cannot spark a wildfire above ground the way an exposed line can, so the company calls undergrounding a fix that removes nearly all wildfire risk from the stretch of line it covers. Undergrounding is only 1 of 2 methods the company runs at once, and the difference between them matters for judging what the miles actually buy.
Two different fixes, two different kinds of risk cut
Overhead hardening is the company second method, replacing wooden poles with steel poles and bare wire with covered wire far less likely to spark a fire if it falls or is struck by debris. The company has completed more than 1,800 miles of hardening since that program launched in 2018, and plans more than 2,000 miles by the end of 2027, with 314 miles planned for 2026 alone. Hardening cuts ignition risk, the chance a line sparks a fire, by nearly 67% on a line once finished, the company states. That is a real cut, but a hardened line can still spark a fire in situations a buried line cannot.
Undergrounding and overhead hardening are 2 different fixes with 2 different stated risk effects, not 2 measures of the same thing.
Show the numbers
| Undergrounding, completed | 1370 |
| Undergrounding, 2027 target | 1900 |
| Overhead hardening, completed | 1800 |
| Overhead hardening, 2027 target | 2000 |
What the systemwide numbers show
The company own filed Wildfire Mitigation Plan, the multi year safety plan every California utility must submit to the state, gives a combined systemwide effect. As of June 30 2025, that plan says undergrounding and overhead hardening together had permanently removed nearly 7.5% of wildfire ignition risk across the entire company system, compared with a 2023 baseline. That figure is now more than a year old, and no more recent systemwide number has been published. This site worked out the pace of work behind it directly. Comparing that mid 2025 snapshot, more than 725 miles of undergrounding completed, to the current total of more than 1,370 miles, about 14 and a half months apart, undergrounding miles rose by at least 645, or roughly 44 miles a month on average, a rate calculated here from the 2 dated totals, not one the company publishes.
These 3 numbers measure different things, not the same scale. The first is how often a planned shutoff prevents a catastrophic fire when used. The second is how much a single hardened line own ignition risk falls once finished. The third is how much of the entire system risk has been permanently removed since 2023. The third number is not low performance, it measures the whole system rather than 1 fix.
Show the numbers
| Public Safety Power Shutoff | 95 |
| Overhead hardening | 67 |
| Systemwide, both combined | 7.5 |
Why the company keeps spending on it
Power lines cause less than 10% of all reported wildfires in California, the California Public Utilities Commission states, but are blamed for roughly half of the state most destructive fires. A state fire agency record attributes the 2018 Camp Fire to a power line, a fire that burned 153,336 acres, destroyed 18,804 structures and killed 85 people. More than half of the company service area sits in a high fire risk zone, a state designated area more likely to burn. Until buried and hardened lines cover more of that area, the company still relies on Public Safety Power Shutoff, deliberately turning off power during dry, windy weather so a line cannot spark a fire, estimated 95% effective at preventing a catastrophic fire when used. On September 11, 2026, the company warned a planned shutoff could cut power to 14,000 customers across 11 counties, the same kind of event the buried and hardened miles are meant to eventually make unnecessary.