PG&amp: When maintenance fails becomes a disaster

Maintenance and risk management are two sides of the same coin. The PG&E case proves unequivocally: when maintenance is neglected, the risk does not disappear. It accumulates. Quietly. To become irreversible.

A centenary company, a fatal error

Pacific Gas and Electric Company — PG&E — is one of the largest energy companies in the United States. Founded in 1905, it served millions of Californians with electricity and natural gas. Yet, in January 2019, he filed for failure. Not for lack of customers. Not for a market collapse. For a non-existent maintenance program.

What happened

Between 2015 and 2018, PG&E’s electrical infrastructure caused a series of devastating fires in California. The most serious — the “Camp Fire” of November 2018 — destroyed the city of Paradise, causing 85 victims and burning over 18,000 buildings. It was the most deadly fire in California history.

The investigations established a clear responsibility: PG&E did not have an effective program of inspection and maintenance of its electrical lines. Weared cables, outdated infrastructure, skipped controls. Risk signals existed. They were documented. And they’ve been ignored for years.

Inaction cost

Wrong by claims for compensation estimated at around $30 billion, PG&E filed bankruptcy in January 2019 — becoming the first case in the American history of a company declared penally responsible for arson.

The cost of preventive maintenance which has not been done? A fraction of that figure.

The lesson for each company

The PG&E case does not only concern the energy sector. It covers every organization that manages infrastructure, machinery or plants.

Maintenance is not an operating cost to optimize. It’s a security guard. When it is neglected — for economic, organizational or simply by habit — the risk accumulates silently. To the breaking point.

Jumped inspection is not a saving. It is a risk transferred to the future.

Conclusion

PG&E had the means, resources and skills to prevent those disasters. What was missing was a culture of maintenance as a risk management tool — not as a cost item to be reduced.

Prevention is not seen when it works. You only see it when it wasn’t there.