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PG&E shuts off power to preempt wildfires

October 15, 2018

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Tens of thousands of California residents found their power shut off Sunday or Monday as a result of a surprise preemptive move to curtail wildfires by PG&E. [Cal Coast Times]

The utility shut off power in extreme fire-risk areas of several counties in the North Bay Area and Sierra Foothills. PG&E said it decided to do so based on localized weather forecasts calling for wind gusts of up to 50 mph Sunday night into Monday morning.

Approximately 42,000 customers were affected by the outages Sunday evening. The total grew to 59,819 customers Monday morning, according to PG&E.

Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Lake, Napa and Somona counties are affected by the outages.

Meanwhile on the Central Coast, a red flag warning is in effect Monday morning through Tuesday evening in the mountains of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties and the foothills of the Cuyama Valley. Gusty offshore winds and low humidity are expected in the areas, according to the National Weather Service.

A Cal Fire map shows parts of southeastern San Luis Obispo County and possibly a section of the city of SLO are affected by the fire warning. Strong Santa Ana winds are expected in those areas, and residents should be prepared for evacuation orders, according to Cal Fire.


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I would think that the inconvenience of no power for a day would be much better than 2 weeks of fire and the damage left in its wake.


0

PG&E has a no loss situation where the taxpayer pays for everything no matter what. Prices have kept going up&up and the minimum tier use goes down so there is no way you can stay in first tier so you pay more for “quote” extra usage. PG&E has sent someone out to trim trees on power line at my house forever and I have contacted them to just add another pole so the line would be higher and clear trees and would be cheaper in long run but they keep trimming instead. They now will be shutting power off every time a big storm comes thru to protect there B!!!!. We need another utility to supply power in all of Ca. to end their monopoly.


-2

Why? we paid for their ineptness thanks to our state “representatives” …we the tax payers of California are insuring PG&Es butt so we should say whether the power is turned off in a wind or not…….not them…


-3

Just be patient. After a couple of cod nights or hot days the problem will be solved. A rate increase is in the making. You can look at it as a rate increase or the back door approach to a tax increase. Whatever you call it everyone will be paying. It’s not like PG&E is in a deficit situation mainly because they are pretty much a monopoly. Can you but electricity somewhere else? Solar? It’s good but when PG&E starts losing revenue the government will back them for a rate increase. Remember they are great donors at election time.


-2

Come on gentlemen, get real! if you would take the time to study the VERY COMPLEX situation that all electric power supply utilities are facing with significant changes in CA atmospheric conditions, AND the regulations that the utilities have been impacted by in supporting customers and the public, including regulations that actually increase risks to our society, AND the fact that the public has increasingly built homes in wildfire-prone country, AND the fact that communities have become dangerous “Tree City USA” cities preventing the clearing of trees from fire prone areas, you might begin to understand the critical position that utilities find themselves. Not only are utilities responsible for their actions, SO ARE residents who want power at very low, unrealistic prices, yet get all bent out of shape when problems arise that were negatively impacted by an uninformed and unsupportive public who wants something for nothing. We could have been undergrounding power lines for many years, but the public has not wanted to pay the higher cost. The old saying is so very applicable —- Pay me now, or pay me later. In reality the cost of living “safely” is far more costly than the public wants to pay. Live and learn.


15

First Gov Brown makes taxpayers responsible for the failure of PG&E to maintain their system if a wildfire results, now some of those same taxpayers get little notice to having their power shut off. Since we the taxpayers are now responsible shouldn’t we the taxpayers make the decision to shut down parts of the system???


-4

Pretty simple, deep pockets, corrupt lawyers,the need for a scapegoat and extortion by code bla,bla,bla whatever to shut down Ca’s nuke plants. You aint seen nothing yet folks. Progressiveness at its finest, keep moving forward Ca and set that example of how to mimic a third world country


8

Now that we are separately charged for generation and transmission, will we be refunded for each time we are disconnected from the transmission aspect of our service? If we are disconnect from the transmission facility for a complete month then maybe we will only be charged for the generation PG&E doesn’t let us have? Sounds like a great business model.


3