PG&E warns of potential power shutoffs for fire danger across Central and Northern California

Chris Biderman and Daniel Hunt, The Sacramento Bee on Oct 15, 2024

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Ahead of potentially dangerous conditions that could lead to wildfires, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. is warning of possible public safety power shutoffs across a wide swath of Northern and Central California beginning as early as Thursday night.

The utility, blamed for sparking several wildfires across the region including the deadliest blaze in state history, said Tuesday it was preparing for the potential of engineered outages amid forecasts of gusty northerly winds, extremely dry conditions and warm weather through the weekend.

Officials did not say how many homes and businesses could be without electricity through Sunday and its “future PSPS outages” online map was not available Tuesday evening. The company did activate its PSPS advisory page and was expected to provide updates and the number of customers who could be affected.

But PG&E’s meteorologists — who have been monitoring the forecast for a high-pressure ridge to build over the Great Basin, opening the door to so-called Diablo winds — said as many as 30 counties from Fresno to Redding and from the Bay Area to the Sierra Nevada foothills could be affected Friday.

The utility said it was “closely monitoring the forecast for these periods of dry offshore winds, which could bring elevated fire weather” to summer-dried vegetation described by PG&E officials as “abundant and fully cured.”

Red flag conditions prompt fire concern

The warning for the utility’s fourth series of PSPS outages came as forecasters from the National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for the Valley and Bay Area beginning Thursday night and lasting through at least Saturday.

But Friday is expected to be the worst of the warmer winds from the north and east as gusts on the Valley floor could top 45 mph amid sustained winds of 15 to 25 mph. The strongest winds, however, will be in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta where winds are expected to be 20 to 30 mph with gusts as high as 55 mph.

Weather service forecasters said humidity levels could be as low as 10% with “moderate to poor” overnight replenishment, allowing little recovery of moisture.

“The combination of gusty wind and low humidity can cause new fire starts and ongoing wildfires to rapidly grow in size and intensity,” according to the warning.

The latest outages could come two weeks after the last round of potential outages in which fewer than 10,000 ratepayers in the northern Sacramento Valley were placed in the dark to protect infrastructure. PG&E has come under consistent criticism for engineering shutoffs in past years to ward off the potential for its equipment to spark blazes under extreme conditions.

Who could be affected by power shutoffs

But this week’s outages are much wider than any planned shutoffs so far this year. On Tuesday, PG&E said as many as 12 counties — mostly in the Bay Area and along the western tier of the Sacramento Valley — would be targeted. Those counties are: Alameda, Colusa, Contra Costa, Glenn, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Shasta, Solano, Sonoma, Tehama and Yolo,

The number of counties would more than double on Friday as up to 30 counties could be affected beyond Thursday’s set and include: Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, El Dorado, Fresno, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, Monterey, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Sierra, Stanislaus and Tuolumne

All 30 counties, representing a large portion of the Oakland-based utility’s 70,000-square-mile territory, could face shutoffs again on Saturday before conditions improve, though 20 counties were listed for possible shutoffs Sunday.

Utility blamed for past wildfire events

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. Since then, PG&E has been working to underground many electricity lines in fire-prone areas, which it says is the most effective way to reduce fire risk and is making California’s grid more resilient to climate change by leading to a notable reduction in wildfire ignitions this season.

More than 1 million acres have burned in California this year across nearly 6,900 different wildfire incidents, according to Cal Fire, though none have been identified as being started by the utility’s equipment.

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