WEBINAR

Undergrounding at Scale – PG&E’s Innovations and Lessons Learned

Discover how PG&E is pioneering large-scale undergrounding to enhance safety, reliability, and resilience—balancing innovation with real-world challenges in wildfire-prone regions and beyond.
September 22, 2025
6:00 PM UTC
1 hour

September 22, 2025 

2:00 PM ET / 1:00 PM CT / 11:00 AM PT / 7:00 PM GMT 

Duration: 1 hour 

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Summary

As utilities across the country weigh the costs, benefits, and challenges of undergrounding, PG&E is advancing large-scale projects that balance safety, system reliability, and community impact. From urban substations to statewide wildfire risk areas, the utility is deploying new design practices, cost strategies, and technological innovations that are shaping the future of underground construction.

Join Trevor Fulks, Senior Manager of Strategy, Innovation, and Partnership at PG&E, as he shares lessons from PG&E’s undergrounding program, including the practical challenges of planning and construction, the policy drivers behind these efforts, and the innovations being tested and deployed to make undergrounding more efficient and effective.

What you’ll learn:

  • Undergrounding challenges at scale – how planning and design issues can impact construction in wildfire-prone areas.
  • Innovations in practice – fielded solutions and new methods improving efficiency, safety, and cost-effectiveness.
  • What's next – a look at the emerging technologies and strategies on the horizon for undergrounding projects nationwide.

Speakers

Trevor Fuilks

Sr. Manager Strat, Innovation, Partership

PG&E

Trevor began his T&D construction career working on a general construction crew in 2005. Since then he had spent his career executing projects in both the Gas and Electric T&D realms. In 2003 he joined the Strategy, Innovation and Partnership team within PG&E's Underground program - a team which he now leads. This team is dedicated to discovering, vetting, and deploying new methods of planning, design, construction, and mapping with the goal of increasing efficiency in Electric Underground construction.

Mike Beehler

National Spokesperson

Power Delivery Intelligence Initiative

Mike Beehler P.E. is the national spokesperson for the Power Delivery Intelligence Initiative and the chief opportunity officer for Mike Beehler & Associates LLC. He started his career designing and building transmission lines and substations for Tucson Electric Power and the Hawaiian Electric Co. and then spent more than 20 years designing T&D infrastructure and consulting on emerging trends at Burns & McDonnell. He has written, presented, and consulted on reliability-centered maintenance, critical infrastructure protection, and program management. In addition, he is a well-known industry writer and speaker on the early definition of the smart grid, 3-D and building information modeling applications in T&D, and development plans for smart cities. Most recently, he is sought for his strategic leadership and vision on the application of emerging technologies in changing business models to include the integration of distributed energy resources, augmented/virtual reality, and artificial intelligence. He authored the book, The Science of the Sale. Beehler is a registered professional engineer in Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Texas, Colorado, Kansas, Georgia, and Alabama. He also is a Fellow in the American Society of Civil Engineers and a member of IEEE and CIGRE.

Sponsored by:

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