The California Energy Commission (CEC) clarified that statewide orders in response to COVID-19 identifying essential electricity industry workers include solar photovoltaic and energy storage installers.
The ongoing health and safety of all Californians is of upmost importance to the State of California and the (CEC). Consistent with Governor Gavin Newsom’s Executive Order to combat the COVID-19 Pandemic (N-33-20), the CEC advises all of its partners and stakeholders to abide by its directives.
Under this order, the California Department of Public Health’s (CDPH) State Public Health Officer has ordered “all individuals living in the State of California to stay home or at their place of residence except as needed to maintain continuity of operations of the federal critical infrastructure sectors, as outlined here. In addition, and in consultation with the Director of the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, I may designate additional sectors as critical in order to protect the health and well-being of all Californians.”
The State Public Health Officer has designated essential critical infrastructure workers needed at this time to support critical sectors, including the construction and energy sectors, as detailed here. This list of essential workers is updated as needed.
The list of identified essential workers for the electricity industry includes “workers who maintain, ensure, or restore the generation, transmission, and distribution of electric power…” This list includes workers whose efforts are needed to supply electricity to households and businesses, and essential workers such as electricians who provide services that are necessary to maintaining the essential operation of construction sites and construction projects (including those that support such projects to ensure the ongoing availability of electricity).
Installation and maintenance of photovoltaics (PV) and energy storage projects have the added importance of supporting the resilience and continued operations of critical equipment and infrastructure across the state that requires uninterrupted power. This may include medical equipment and other devices necessary to ensure ongoing health and safety in consideration of potential grid outages and/or public safety power shutoffs that may occur in the future.
All essential workers are instructed to follow the public health guidelines issued by CDPH and local public health officials, including social distancing and staying home when sick to protect those they serve, their coworkers and themselves.
As efforts to control the spread of the virus continue, state and local officials are regularly updating their directives and guidance. Consistent with their authority, some local jurisdictions have placed additional restrictions beyond those put in place by Governor Newsom and CDPH.
To ensure essential services are provided, the CEC supports local enforcement agencies continuing to permit building construction and energy projects, including PV and battery storage installations for both newly constructed and existing buildings. Please contact your local enforcement agency to verify which permitting services are available in your area.
For more information and assistance, the CEC’s Energy Standards Hotline is responding to emails Monday through Friday.
News item from the California Energy Commission
“Installation and maintenance of photovoltaics (PV) and energy storage projects have the added importance of supporting the resilience and continued operations of critical equipment and infrastructure across the state that requires uninterrupted power. This may include medical equipment and other devices necessary to ensure ongoing health and safety in consideration of potential grid outages and/or public safety power shutoffs that may occur in the future.”
Just sayin’, California is under so many “mandates”, programs, political maneuvers and many sundry “activists” groups, it’s like a big impacted bowel, waiting for a laxative that ‘really’ works. So, many people have been effected by PG&E, its incompetence over decades, and its ‘fix’ for poor infrastructure O&M of the PSPS, puts another (layer) of energy security and loss of commerce to all citizens affected by the “shutdown” event. The sad thing here, by regulatory practices, PG&E will be allowed to file a rate case with the CPUC to raise electricity rates due to (its own) PSPS program to recover “lost revenues” when PG&E doesn’t sell as much electricity during one of its PSPS events. The last big one there affected about 1 million ratepayers for about 3 days. If a Santa Ana wind event lasts a week, one can expect a PSPS applied in several areas or one large area for at least several hours, to perhaps several days, without power. The loss of commerce, wages, productivity will all take a toll over the State as a whole, it shouldn’t take very long for this to devastate the so called “sixth” largest economy in the World.
“All essential workers are instructed to follow the public health guidelines issued by CDPH and local public health officials, including social distancing and staying home when sick to protect those they serve, their coworkers and themselves.”
Remember the name Patricia Dowd, it has been revealed for now she was “victim zero” of what was first deemed as heart failure. It was found with (more) investigation, that the ‘heart failure’ was due to the recently found effect on some folks with Covid-19 to have blood clotting problems causing heart attacks, strokes, in both arteries (and) veins. This means MS. Dowd probably contracted the infection in mid to late January. Are there several ‘others’ in the bay area, that died and their death certificate calls out heart failure, when the heart failure’s underlying cause was Covid-19 and blood clots? How many strokes were caused by Covid-19? What has the CDC missed here? Can the U.S. expect a whole generation of citizens to be COPD as a result of damage from Covid-19 for those who have had it and ‘recovered’.