This Substation Has a Fire Problem

Description

In late 2025, Mission Substation caught fire again — the third major incident in thirty years, and almost exactly 22 years to the day of a previous fire.

This is despite more than $200 million in upgrades and remediation work.

So what’s going on?

In this video, I dig into the historical incident reports, regulatory findings, and the official press release following the latest fire. As a transmission engineer, I break down what’s being said — what isn’t — and what the technical details actually suggest about the condition of the equipment and the wider California distribution system.

Links:
Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheElectricBrit
Reference File: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15y4zjtJAJlLPIGppiKZW1pFE8d_j3OCbpQMvxuL0nO4/edit?usp=drive_link
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/pge-mission-substation-fire-trouble-regulators/4001335/
https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/pge-reaches-100-million-shareholder-settlement-over-2017-2018-california-2026-01-12/
https://abc7news.com/post/fire-pge-substation-saratoga-causes-power-outage-20000-customers-christmas-eve/18312652/
https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=59284
https://archello.com/story/110825/attachments/photos-videos/3
https://www.pge.com/en/newsroom/currents/hometowns/understanding-pg-e-substation-inspections-and-audits.html
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUtSAnTjuaG/
https://bouldercityreview.com/news/cost-estimates-for-substation-3-soar-by-141-90776/
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/021596-2025
https://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/publishedDocs/published/Report/40886.PDF
https://www.engineeringa2z.com/feeder-radial-parallel-ring-main-interconnected/

Chapters:
0:00 Recap
1:14 Introduction
1:43 2025 Fire
2:54 Press Release (Area)
5:10 Investment
7:27 Inspections
9:04 Audits
13:09 1996 Fire
15:10 2003 Fire
17:53 Similarities
19:29 Report Recommendations
20:43 Conclusions
21:56 Cat!
23:30 Editor/Cat Slander
25:00 You really like Simba huh