Forecasted Offshore Dry Winds Mean PG&E Might Need to Proactively Turn Off Power for Safety in Small Portions of 16 Counties on Tuesday Night
August 16 2021 - 12:10AM
Business Wire
PG&E’s Emergency Operations Center is Open
and Company Meteorologists and Operations Professionals are
Monitoring the Situation
The Majority of Affected Customers Would Be in
Butte and Shasta Counties; PG&E Is Sending 48-Hour Notices to
Customers Who Might Be Affected
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) opened its emergency
operations center today, and the company’s meteorologists and
operations professionals are monitoring a potential dry offshore
wind event forecasted to start Tuesday evening (Aug. 17). Given
this wind event and current conditions including extreme to
exceptional drought and extremely dry vegetation, PG&E has
begun sending 48-hour advance notifications to customers in
targeted areas where PG&E may need to proactively turn power
off for safety to reduce the risk of wildfire from energized power
lines.
Potential Public Safety Power Shutoff Tuesday Night
The potential PSPS event starting Tuesday night could affect
approximately 39,000 customers in small portions of 16 counties in
the Sierra Nevada foothills, the North Coast, the North Valley and
the North Bay mountains. While the majority of customers—about
27,000—are in Butte and Shasta counties, we are also notifying
customers who may experience safety shutoffs in portions of 14
other counties: Glenn, Humboldt, Lake, Lassen, Mendocino, Napa,
Plumas, Sierra, Solano, Sonoma, Tehama, Trinity, Yolo and Yuba.
The potential PSPS event is approximately 48 hours away and
conditions may change. PG&E’s in-house meteorologists, as well
as its Wildfire Safety Operations Center and Emergency Operations
Center, continue to closely monitor conditions. We will share
additional customer notifications as conditions evolve.
Customer notifications—via text, email and automated phone
call—began Sunday evening, approximately two days prior to the
potential shutoff. PG&E employees will pay individual,
in-person visits when possible to customers enrolled in the
company’s Medical Baseline program who do not verify that they have
received these important safety communications, with a primary
focus on customers who rely on electricity for critical
life-sustaining equipment.
Potentially Affected Counties
Customers can look up their address online to find out if their
location is being monitored for the potential safety shutoff at
www.pge.com/pspsupdates.
The potential shutoff is currently expected to affect
approximately 39,000 customers across the following counties:
- Butte County: 13,841 customers, 1,366 Medical Baseline
customers
- Glenn County: 17 customers, 2 Medical Baseline
customers
- Humboldt County: 643 customers, 13 Medical Baseline
customers
- Lake County: 2,727 customers, 184 Medical Baseline
customers
- Lassen County: 65 customers, 7 Medical Baseline
customers
- Mendocino County: 239 customers, 15 Medical Baseline
customers
- Napa County: 1,804 customers, 87 Medical Baseline
customers
- Plumas County: 778 customers, 27 Medical Baseline
customers
- Shasta County: 14,027 customers, 1,239 Medical Baseline
customers
- Sierra County: 1,035 customers, 30 Medical Baseline
customers
- Solano County: 71 customers, 3 Medical Baseline
customers
- Sonoma County: 106 customers, 1 Medical Baseline
customer
- Tehama County: 2,856 customers, 219 Medical Baseline
customers
- Trinity County: 426 customers, 21 Medical Baseline
customers
- Yolo County: 100 customers, 4 Medical Baseline
customers
- Yuba County: 531 customers, 49 Medical Baseline
customers
Public Safety Power Shutoffs: What PG&E Customers Should
Know
Why PG&E Calls a PSPS
Event
We initiate Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) when the weather
forecast is for such severe weather that people’s safety, lives,
homes and businesses may be in danger of wildfires.
As each weather situation is unique, we carefully review a
combination of factors when deciding if power must be turned off.
These factors include:
- Low humidity levels, generally 30% and below.
- A forecast of high winds, particularly sustained winds above 20
miles per hour and wind gusts above 30-40 miles per hour.
- Condition of dry material on the ground and low moisture
content of vegetation.
- A Red Flag Warning declared by the National Weather
Service.
- Real-time ground observations from our Wildfire Safety
Operations Center and from our crews working across the service
territory.
This year, our decision-making process is evolving to also
account for the presence of trees tall enough to strike power lines
when determining if a PSPS event is necessary.
Every wildfire season is different, and the ongoing drought and
the conditions will determine the number of times we will need to
shut off power, without compromising safety.
This set of criteria is a first step which may lead to further
analysis from our meteorology team to determine if a Public Safety
Power Shutoff (PSPS) event is necessary.
Here’s Where to Learn
More
- PG&E’s emergency website (www.pge.com/pspsupdates) is now
available in 16 languages: English, Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog,
Russian, Vietnamese, Korean, Farsi, Arabic, Hmong, Khmer, Punjabi,
Japanese, Thai, Portuguese, and Hindi. Customers will have the
opportunity to choose their language of preference for viewing the
information when visiting the website.
- Customers are encouraged to update their contact information
and indicate their preferred language for notifications by visiting
www.pge.com/mywildfirealerts or by calling 1-800-743-5000, where
in-language support is available.
- Tenants and non-account holders can sign up to receive PSPS ZIP
Code Alerts for any area where you do not have a PG&E account
by visiting www.pge.com/pspszipcodealerts.
- At PG&E’s Safety Action Center
(www.safetyactioncenter.pge.com) customers can prepare for
emergencies. By using the "Make Your Own Emergency Plan" tool and
answering a few short questions, visitors to the website can
compile and organize the important information needed for a
personalized family emergency plan. This includes phone numbers,
escape routes and a family meeting location if an evacuation is
necessary.
PG&E's Commitment to Wildfire
Safety
PG&E's multi-faceted Community Wildfire Safety Program
includes both immediate and long-term action plans to further
reduce wildfire risk and keep its customers and communities
safe.
Since 2018, PG&E's wildfire safety work has resulted in:
- Multiple inspections of distribution, transmission and
substation equipment in high fire-threat areas
- Hardening more than 600 miles with stronger lines and poles to
better withstand severe weather
- Conducting enhanced vegetation safety work on nearly 5,000 line
miles in high fire-threat areas (this is in addition to the more
than 5 million trees that PG&E has trimmed or removed as part
of its routine vegetation management and tree mortality
efforts)
- Installing more than 1,000 sectionalizing devices and switches
that limit the size of Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) that are
necessary to mitigate the risk of wildfires
- Installing more than 1,150 advanced weather stations to help
PG&E gather more data and information to better predict and
respond to extreme weather threats
- Installing more than 400 high-definition cameras to monitor and
respond to wildfires
- Reserving more than 65 helicopters to quickly restore power
after severe weather during PSPS events
- Monitoring wildfire threats in real-time through a dedicated
team at PG&E's Wildfire Safety Operations Center, which is
staffed 24 hours a day during wildfire season
Ongoing PG&E Wildfire Mitigation and
Resiliency Efforts
In addition to significantly expanding its undergrounding,
PG&E's ongoing safety work to enhance grid resilience and
address the growing threat of severe weather and wildfires
continues on a risk-based and data-driven basis, as outlined in
PG&E's 2021 Wildfire Mitigation Plan.
About PG&E
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E
Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is a combined natural gas and electric
utility serving more than 16 million people across 70,000 square
miles in Northern and Central California. For more information,
visit pge.com and pge.com/news.
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