Aug. 6, 2026
Sacramento – The Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety (Energy Safety) today released its Draft Certificate Guidelines for a 30-day public comment period. The guidelines set forth requirements electrical corporations must meet for issuance of a Certificate as described in Public Utilities Code section 8389.
A Certificate is designed to encourage electrical corporations to invest in safety and to improve safety culture to limit wildfire risks and reduce costs. A Certificate is validation that an electrical corporation has documented completion of established statutory actions related to safety. It does not constitute affirmation by Energy Safety that an electrical corporation has taken all possible steps to prevent its equipment from causing wildfires or is in full compliance with its wildfire mitigation plan or other laws and requirements.
An electrical corporation with a Certificate is presumed to have acted reasonably in proceedings before the CPUC to recover costs of a utility-caused wildfire unless demonstrated otherwise.