Power shutoffs loom for 7 California counties as PG&E predicts fire conditions in Central Valley

Hannah Poukish
·4 min read

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said the potential for dry and windy weather — ripe conditions for wildfires — has prompted the utility to plan for possible public safety power shutoffs across the Central Valley on Saturday.

Customers in seven counties were notified Friday that the utility may deliberately cut electricity to as many as 16,000 homes and businesses after its forecasters predicted the potential for dangerous conditions, the company said.

PG&E said it could “proactively turn power off for safety to reduce the risk of wildfire from energized powerlines,” officials said, as soon as 11 a.m. The deliberate outage would be PG&E’s third so-called PSPS of the year and mainly affect ratepayers on the western tier of the upper San Joaquin Valley.

The counties and number of customers who may be affected:

  • Alameda: 163 customers

  • Contra Costa: 328

  • Fresno: 3

  • Merced: 3,979

  • San Benito: 193

  • San Joaquin: 6,352

  • Stanislaus: 5,028

The areas affected are also at risk of shutoffs on Sunday as well, PG&E’s forecasters indicated.

PG&E forecasters noted they were “tracking potential for stronger than normal westerly winds to develop Saturday afternoon and evening through coastal gaps and passes and over terrain adjacent to the west Central Valley such as the Altamont Pass and San Luis Reservoir area.”

Winds in the area could gust to 50 mph, they said, adding: “There may be a few critical hours Saturday afternoon with gusty winds and low relative humidity before humidity recovers during the evening and overnight Saturday into Sunday.”

Temperatures in the area are expected to hover just above 100 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

Officials have said that PG&E is committed to stopping wildfires and that such engineered outages are “a last resort” for the utility under such extreme conditions of hot temperatures, low humidity and strong winds.

“PG&E initiates PSPS when the fire-weather forecast is severe enough that people’s safety, lives, homes and businesses may be in danger of wildfires,” the company said. “Our overarching goal is to stop catastrophic wildfires by proactively turning off power when extreme weather threatens our electric grid.

“We recognize that PSPS outages create hardships for our customers and communities. Our sole focus is to keep our customers safe.”

Restoring power to affected customers would likely take several hours once the weather “all clear” has been given. PG&E crews need to inspect the de-energized lines to make sure they weren’t damaged during the shutoff.

Utility blamed equipment sparking wildfires

PG&E in recent years has imposed planned power shutoffs in the face of dire wildfire weather. The utility company’s equipment has been blamed for sparking some of the worst fires in state history, including the 2018 Camp Fire that devastated Paradise, and PG&E Corp. has been found liable for billions of dollars worth of destruction.

The utility since 2017 has been blamed for starting more than 30 wildfires, blazes that destroyed more than 23,000 homes and businesses and has killed more than 100 people.

Last year, the company engineered two PSPS events out of four possible scenarios the company identified, according to company filings to the California Public Utilities Commission. In late August, the company cut power across the same “footprint” under Tuesday’s possible outage, affecting nearly 4,000 ratepayers out of the 8,400 who were notified of a possible outage from Yolo and Napa counties north to Shasta County. A second PSPS event three weeks later affected roughly 1,200 customers, roughly one in five who could have been affected, in a smaller footprint in Tehama, Lake and Napa counties, according to the filings.

PG&E customers enrolled in its Medical Baseline program who have not verified that they received notification of the potential shutoffs will be visited at home by a PG&E employee when possible, the utility has said for previous outages. Officials said primary focus will be given to customers who rely on electricity for critical life-sustaining equipment.

The utility said it would open six “community resource centers” Saturday in the blackout areas, enabling customers to cool off in the air conditioning, get free bottled water and snacks and charge their phones. PG&E mapping indicated those centers would be open beginning at 8 a.m. in Dublin, Tracy, Stockton, Hilmar, Newman and Gustine.

More information on the PSPS and how to get alerts are available on PG&E website.