Coupling fire and energy in the Anthropocene: Deploying scale to analyze social vulnerability to forced electricity outages in California

Extreme events such as wildfires and winter storms result in disruptions to grid-based electricity delivery. Electricity supply disruptions are both reactive, whereby specific events cause damage to physical infrastructure, or anticipatory where electricity suppliers—namely electric utility companies—preemptively de-energize sections of an electrical grid or distribution network based on elevated potential of extreme conditions that may cause wildfire ignition. De-energization has been promoted as a strategy to mitigate risk of wildfire ignition and spread when active fires may encounter distribution/transmission lines. Provision of basic energy services such as electricity are necessary for maintaining a range of essential functions such as communication, which become critical during extreme events. In recent years, Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) have increasingly been deployed by utility companies in Western U.S states as wildfire risk increases due to combined impacts of anthropogenic climate change, fuel accumulation, and expansion of development in fire prone lands. While the PSPS policy was designed to reduce liability of utilities in igniting fires, there is a dearth of research critically analyzing how the policy affects social vulnerability for populations subjected to periods of de-energization during high-risk fire conditions. This article aims to deepen current understandings of the way scale can be deployed to illustrate the highly spatial nature of relationships coupling electricity supply outages with demographic data to advance limited knowledge on social vulnerability characteristics for specific communities subjected to PSPS. The research engages scale to compare social vulnerability to outages experienced both in Butte County, located in northern California and the state as a whole.