Time for Root Cause Analysis of California’s Utility Problems?
Trend of Failures …
Time to Find Generic Root Causes?
I know that seeing increasing news coverage of California wildfires (cause by electric power distrbution lines) and gas pipeline an storage facility failures can’t be called a trend. But how many things have to go wrong before it is time for advanced root cause analysis of the problems and a look at the Generic Causes of the issues behind the root causes.
First, let’s look at a few of the accidents…
- Malibu, Witch Creek, Rice, and Guejito Fires from Powerline Sparks/Failures (2007)
- San Burno pipeline explosion (September 2010)
- Butte Fire (September 2015)
- Aliso Canyon Staurage Facility Failure (October 2015)
- Souther California Gas Company’s pipeline explosion (October 2017)
- Sonoma, Napa, Lake, and Humbolt Fires – 12 caused by power lines and electrical equipment failures (October 2017)
- Camp Fire, Paradise, CA (85 killed) failed distribution tower (November 2018), Paradise, CA
Here are some videos about the disasters…
In new legislation, California and California rate payers will provide California utilities with $21 billion to pay for damages from blazes linked to the utilities equipment.
Too many lives lost … Time to find Generic Causes
The lives lost and money lost cry out for a better answer. That’s why I think that looking at the Generic Causes of these accidents is so important.
What is a Generic Cause? The TapRooT® Root Cause Analysis System defines a Generic Cause as:
The systemic problem or problems that allows a root cause to exist,
across multiple incidents or sites or systems.
In this case, we would be looking for the reasons why some California Utilities are repeatedly failing in their primary duty to provide safe service.
Are you looking for Generic Causes at your company?
For those interested in finding and fixing Generic Causes for incidents at your company, attend the 5-Day Advanced Root Cause Analysis Team leader Training coming up public courses around the world. For course dates and locations, see:
https://www.taproot.com/store/5-Day-Courses/
Or to get a quote for a course at your site, contact us by CLICKING HERE.
