Internationally Recognized Independent Third-Party Organization Recognizes PG&E’s Electric Asset Management Systems

By: Pacific Gas and Electric Company via Business Wire

October 19, 2021 at 13:48 PM EDT

Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) announced today it achieved ISO 55001 certification for asset management systems in electric operations, a sign of progress in the company’s safety culture. Lloyd's Register, a United Kingdom-based system management assurance firm, awarded the certification.

Lloyd’s rigorous ISO 55001 evaluation process was more than three years in the making and included a comprehensive review of PG&E’s Electric Operations.

“PG&E has taken a stand that everyone and everything is always safe. And every day, we are making progress on this stand because it’s what our hometowns and customers expect and deserve. These rigorous certifications underscore our commitment to safely delivering reliable and affordable electric service and earning back trust and confidence in PG&E,” said Joe Bentley, senior vice president for Electric Engineering.

ISO 55001 is a set of requirements for an asset management system for managing complex assets focused on value, alignment of action, leadership and assurance. The certification validates practices and principles PG&E uses to manage its vast network of electric operations assets, which includes more than 18,000 miles of transmission lines, nearly 40,000 transmission towers, millions of distribution poles and nearly 1,000 substations throughout a service area that stretches from Bakersfield to Eureka and San Francisco to the Sierra Crest.

The certification mirrors one that the company’s Gas organization first achieved in 2014 for Gas Asset Management. Since then, Gas Operations has twice been recertified by Lloyd’s Register for best-in-class industry standards, most recently in late August of this year. In that audit, PG&E also was assessed and recommended for continued compliance with API 1173 (Pipeline Safety Management Systems) and successfully completed a surveillance audit for API 754, Process Safety Performance Indicators.

PG&E is the only gas utility in the United States with multiple international and industry certifications, which are considered as a benchmark for peer utilities.

The company’s Power Generation organization is also beginning its asset management process. Certification also exceeds requirements included in the Wildfire OII Settlement and the Plan of Reorganization approved by both the California Public Utilities Commission and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

Effective asset management systems help organizations achieve their purpose, mission and strategic goals by ensuring decisionmakers and other stakeholders have access and information needed for proactive risk and performance decisions. Strong asset management systems also demonstrate an organization’s intention and capability to manage risk, performance, and costs throughout the life cycle of an asset which improves overall organizational performance.

Qualified assessors review asset management plans and procedures, examine performance results across all asset categories in a system, conduct interviews across all levels of an organization along with field observations of assets and lifecycle maintenance and operating activities.

“There are many critical performance criteria applied in the field to ensure these assets operate as designed,” said Bill Barnes, the first U.S.-based Lloyd’s Register asset management assessor for the ISO 55001 standard. “Use of calibrated tools assures that field activities are delivered in accordance with specifications and standards.”

International standards, such as ISO 55001, provide a shared set of asset management principles, terms and expected benefits that can be used to evaluate the way an organization coordinates its asset management behaviors.

PG&E continues to strengthen its safety culture by investing in workforce development and supplying the latest tools and technology to enhance the safety and reliability of its electric service and system. Continuous improvement is at the heart of a safety culture and PG&E’s efforts to improve its safety culture doesn’t end with these certifications. The initial certifications are followed by regular reviews of assets across families of equipment and locations across a provider's network with similar levels of rigor.

About Lloyd’s Register

As an internationally recognized business assurance and inspection service provider, Lloyd’s Register is one of the world’s leading providers of quality, environmental, sustainability, food safety, occupational health and safety, information and cyber security, and customized assurance – delivered both in person and remotely.

About PG&E

PG&E, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE: PCG), is a combined natural gas and electric utility serving more than 16 million people across 70,000 square miles in Northern and Central California. For more information, visit pge.com and pge.com/news.