- Elizabeth Larson
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PG&E moves forward with public safety power shutoff across parts of 24 counties
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Pacific Gas and Electric said Wednesday evening that it is going forward with a public safety power shutoff that will impact nearly 53,000 customers across portions of 24 counties, including Lake.
The PSPS is taking place in response to a high-wind event with low humidity and dry vegetation that could result in critical fire danger.
The company said 82 Lake County customers, five of them in the medical baseline program, will be included in the shutoff. Mapping shows those customers are located in the south county, around Cobb, Lower Lake and Middletown.
“This program is really all about safety,” said Mark Quinlan, PG&E’s PSPS incident commander, in a Wednesday evening briefing.
Quinlan said the PSPS program is meant to stop catastrophic wildland fires.
Customer notifications about the possibility of the PSPS began on Monday afternoon. PG&E reported late Wednesday afternoon that it had made the decision to move forward.
In the Wednesday evening online briefing, Quinlan said 33,000 customers in Butte, Lake, Napa, Nevada, Plumas, Shasta, Solano, Sonoma, Tehama, Yolo and Yuba counties are having their power turned off between 6 and 8 p.m.
Another 19,000 customers in Alameda, Amador, Calaveras, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Monterey, Nevada, Placer, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and Sierra counties will have their power turned off from 8 to 10 p.m. Wednesday, Quinlan said.
On Thursday at 4 p.m., PG&E anticipates cutting off power to an additional 700 customers in Amador, Calaveras, Humboldt and Trinity counties.
The areas impacted by the PSPS are also under a red flag warning called by the National Weather Service.
Once the weather subsides on Friday morning, PG&E will patrol and inspect the de-energized lines to ensure they were not damaged during the wind event and repair any damage found. PG&E will then safely restore power in stages and as quickly as possible, with the goal of restoring power to nearly all customers within 12 daylight hours after severe weather has passed.
PG&E anticipates power will be restored to essentially all customers affected by the PSPS event who can receive service by 10 p.m. on Friday (Oct. 16), weather and safety permitting.
Infrastructure improvements implemented this year has allowed the company to make PSPS events smaller. PG&E said without those improvements another 12,750 customers would have been deenergized.
Once the weather all-clear is called, PG&E will begin damage inspections of power equipment in order to meet its goal of restoring power within 12 hours of the weather event ending.
The all-clear is expected to occur on Friday.
PG&E is opening 40 community resource centers in impacted communities. Thirty-seven opened on Wednesday with another three to open on Thursday. No centers have opened in Lake County, according to the company’s website.
More information about the PSPS is available here.
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