FCC Under Pressure to Impose New Backup Power Rule, After Wildfires

The FCC is again under pressure to mandate backup power for cellsites, after widespread outages during California wildfires. The issue isn’t new, and questions are growing. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel told us now is time to act.

“It started with Katrina,” Rosenworcel said in a statement to us Wednesday, referring to the deadly 2005 hurricane. “We saw it again with Sandy, Maria, and now the fires out west. When disaster strikes, Americans increasingly reach out for help using wireless phones. It’s now abundantly clear the FCC needs to revisit issues of backup power and network resiliency so that when the unthinkable occurs, we can count on communications. We have work to do.”

Telecom companies have an obligation to prepare to provide service despite power outages, said emergency preparedness and utility officials in interviews. “If I’m a cell or fiber provider, I can’t base my business model on the reliability of the electrical grid,” said former Federal Emergency Management Administrator Craig Fugate.

Utilities told us there's a shared responsibility but also pointed to others.

“There has to be a responsibility” by telecom companies to be prepared for emergency power loss, said Scott Aaronson, vice president-security and preparedness for utility trade group Edison Electric Institute. As with hurricanes, telecom companies had advance notice of the California public safety power shutoffs (see 1910110008), Aaronson said. “If I had anything that PG&E was servicing with power, I would have been proactively planning for the outage,” Fugate said. Pacific Gas and Electric has filed for bankruptcy. It has faced criticism over its own lack of communications with stakeholders during the recent power cut offs. Some of the cuts were to prevent fires caused by power lines touching blowing foliage.

Battery Backups

“Backup power is more necessary now than ever, particularly given power companies shutting off electricity even before a disaster strikes,” said Michael Copps, former FCC commissioner now at Common Cause. “The recent California disasters should make that obvious to just about anyone,” he said. “The commission should long since have addressed this crying need in comprehensive fashion.”

The agency didn't comment Wednesday. Last week, we filed a Freedom of Information Act request for more FCC information on reports of telecom outages during California fire season beyond what was released in late October through early November.

Commissioners approved a backup power requirement under then-Chairman Kevin Martin in response to 2005's Katrina. The agency was challenged by wireless carriers in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The court never had to rule. In December 2008, the FCC pulled the plug after OMB found several procedural flaws that violated the Paperwork Reduction Act (see 0812020137). An FCC spokesperson said then the commission would revisit the issue (see 0812050134).

The issue again emerged after the June 2012 derecho (see 1303010058). Wireless industry lawyers said backup power for cellsites reemerges every few years and always has some political support as an easy, bipartisan issue.

“Network redundancy can help to ensure lifesaving wireless connections before, during, and after emergencies,” emailed Wireless Infrastructure Association President Jonathan Adelstein. Many of the issues are now under discussion by the FCC Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee’s Disaster Response and Recovery Working Group, he noted.

Backup Limitations

Backup for telecom when the power's down may not be a panacea to prevent wireline, wireless and VoIP outages along with pay TV and broadband service not being able to be used by households lacking electricity.

“Backup power is an extremely useful thing to have at both cellsites and consumer premises when the electric grid fails,” but probably isn’t needed everywhere, said Tom Struble, tech policy manager at the R Street Institute. “If there's a gap between the level of backup power deployed and the level of backup power needed to keep consumers safe during emergencies, that's where the FCC could step in and fill the gap through regulation." Key questions "the FCC has to deal with” are whether a gap exists and “how much it would cost to fill," he said.

It’s well known that the newer IP-based communications services are more “brittle” than the systems they're replacing, Fugate said. Older tech such as copper line phone systems don't have the capabilities of their replacements, but the copper is more resilient, he said. Cellular technology is “fragile,” he said. “They will go down.” Power outages are relatively common, Fugate said. He says broadcast radios are more reliable in emergencies than wireless service.

PG&E and Southern California Edison worked with telecom providers to prepare for the public safety power shutoffs, the utilities said. Ensuring sufficient fuel for generators powering battery backup systems is the responsibility of telecom providers, Aaronson said.

“PG&E conducted a PSPS preparedness workshop for telecommunications providers in 2018 and a telecommunications-specific PSPS preparedness webinar this June,” emailed a spokesperson. “We have been meeting one-on-one with telecommunications providers to ensure they have the information and resources they need.” SCE didn’t comment. It directed us to an article on its website in June describing a seminar on such planned outages for the telecom industry.

Aaronson said his members were coordinating with carriers, and acknowledged the large-scale public safety shutoff is a relatively new approach to the problem of fires sparked by utility lines. “There are going to be lessons” learned from the shutoff, he said.

Local Worries

Municipalities are concerned.

Sonoma County board supervisors discussed “the impact the outages had on telecom and the need to coordinate with the major incumbents on ways to improve” at a Tuesday meeting, emailed Calvin Sandeen, broadband department analyst at Sonoma County’s Economic Development Board: “We need to get the incumbents in the room to assess all new and existing sites to install enough backup power that is independent of commercial power in the event of a power outage.” Sandeen thinks “this could be done if each site had a variety of power sources that work in sync with each other, such as solar, battery storage, and diesel generators. Batteries allow a seamless transition, rather than generators and turbines which require time to ramp up.”

Verizon “set up a handful of temporary sites as backup” after the first outage in Santa Cruz County, which suffered major communications issues from the shutoffs, emailed the county’s Second District Supervisor Zach Friend. “It wasn't enough to service the entire impacted population but it was a step in the right direction from the first loss.” Verizon had difficulty getting permission from private property owners and public facilities to place temporary infrastructure, and it might help in the future for carriers to get pre-approval for backup sites, said Friend.

Telecom companies say they are responding to outages.

“Requiring weeks' worth of backup power at every single cellsite would provide maximum resilience and public-safety benefits during severe weather or other emergencies, but would those benefits justify the associated costs?” Struble asked: “With dense heterogeneous networks in urban and suburban areas, does every single small cell need backup power, or is it enough to provide backup power to only the macro cells? In terms of public safety, I think having one or two macro cells online would be sufficient for 911 calls and other emergency services, but insufficient for some non-emergency commercial services.”

CPUC

The California Public Utilities Commission hasn't addressed a May 21 motion by its Public Advocates Office to require communications providers to install backup generators or battery power at wireless facilities in areas with high fire risk, among other safety measures (see 1905220026).

“Action on the motion is critical so that when consumers experience those power shutoffs, they can rely on their wireless phones and telecom services to be able to dial 911, receive emergency alerts [and] communicate with loved ones,” said PAO Communications Program Manager Ana Maria Johnson in an interview. The motion, opposed by telecom providers, waits for the CPUC to issue a proposed order, she said.

The CPUC issued communications disaster relief requirements in August. The rules, including that wireless carriers deploy temporary mobile equipment like cells on wheels, face challenges by wireline, wireless and VoIP providers (see 1910110033), emailed a CPUC spokesperson. “The CPUC has not yet disposed of these applications, but will do so in a future decision.” Chief Administrative Law Judge Anne Simon on Wednesday set a Nov. 20 hearing.

The agency is “continuing its investigation into the resiliency of communications service providers” and talking to the FCC about industry response to shutoffs and fires, its spokesperson said. The CPUC plans to consider a formal investigation of investor-owned electric utilities related to the power shutoffs at a Nov. 13 meeting.

The commission's August disaster reporting order didn’t require backup power for cellsites and covers only declared states of emergencies, said PAO’s Johnson. This year’s power shutoffs showed wireless and other telecom networks are “unreliable, vulnerable and simply not working for some consumers,” she said. Backup power must be onsite and should combine multiple power sources including batteries and generators, she said. The shutoffs are lasting days, so batteries lasting four to seven hours aren’t enough, she said.

“Backup power using batteries and generators continues to be an important part of the solution,” said a California Office of Emergency Services spokesperson. Communications sites vary based on type, location and how critical they are to a carrier’s infrastructure, he noted. “In some cases, local zoning restrictions limit the amount of battery backup power and limit the ability to use generators.”

Editor's note: This is Part III of an occasional series about the California wildfire power and communications outages. Part II examined how municipalities are affected (see 1910300013). Part I looked at battery backup and a federal court case (see 1910110008).