With another round of windy, bone-dry weather expected to descend on Northern and Central California later this week, PG&E is alerting customers that it may again shut off power to communities from the North Bay to the Sierra foothills to reduce the danger of its electrical lines touching off wildfires.
PG&E said in a Sunday evening advisory that it could initiate public safety power shutoffs in parts of 17 counties: Marin, Napa, Sonoma and Solano counties in the Bay Area and foothill areas in Amador, Butte, Colusa, El Dorado, Lake, Mendocino, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, San Joaquin, Tehama, Yolo and Yuba counties.
PG&E on Twitter PG&E monitoring a severe wind event later this week that could impact parts of 17 counties. Read more: https://t.co/9z4IaLShIH
PG&E issued its “PSPS watch” as the National Weather Service warned of the onset of high winds and extremely dry weather later this week, especially in the North Bay hills. The NWS San Francisco Bay Area office says that conditions could reach a critical point Wednesday night, with high fire danger lasting into Thursday.
NWS Bay Area on Twitter High fire danger will be possible this week across portions of CA, including the #BayArea. Gusty N winds & low overnight humidity will develop over the higher terrain, especially the #NorthBay. As of right now, Wednesday night is of greatest concern. Stay tuned…#cawx #cafire
The utility’s alert follows widely criticized pre-emptive blackouts imposed earlier this month during another period of high fire danger. The power outages left 738,000 customers — or about 2 million residents in 34 counties — in the dark. The sprawling nature of the outages and PG&E’s problems executing them have led to demands for increased oversight of the shutoffs, a fire-safety practice approved by state utility regulators in the wake of a series of devastating fires sparked by electrical lines.
PG&E CEO Bill Johnson admitted following the Oct. 9-12 blackouts that the utility made numerous missteps, including poor communication, a barely functioning website and unanswered customer calls.
Johnson said Friday at an emergency meeting of the California Public Utilities Commission that it could take up to 10 years for the utility to improve its system enough to not have to rely on power shutoffs to prevent wildfires during dry, windy conditions.
PG&E executives said Friday that they found about 100 instances where high winds damaged or presented a hazard to electrical equipment during the shutoffs from Oct. 9-12. They said that most of the damage involved vegetation, like trees, grass or brush coming into contact with power lines.
PG&E’s equipment has been found responsible for starting the most devastating wildfire in modern California history — last November’s Camp Fire in Butte County, which killed 85 people and destroyed nearly 14,000 homes.
Since the North Bay Fires that began in October 2017, fires caused by electrical equipment have killed more than 130 people and burned more than 20,000 homes statewide.
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