Strong Winds Expected to Begin This Evening
and Last Through Friday Morning in Most Locations
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) will de-energize
certain electrical lines for safety over the course of this evening
(Wednesday, Oct. 14) as part of a Public Safety Power Shutoff
(PSPS). PG&E is calling a PSPS due to a high-wind event
combined with low humidity and severely dry vegetation, that
together create high risk of catastrophic wildfires. The PSPS event
will affect approximately 53,000 customers in targeted portions of
24 counties.
Customer notifications indicating that the PSPS event would
happen began this afternoon and will continue through early
evening. Lines will be de-energized starting at approximately 6
p.m. tonight and the de-energization process will continue
throughout the evening depending upon location. (A small number of
customers will not lose power until Thursday afternoon.)
This PSPS will affect customers in targeted portions of 24
counties in the Northern Sierra Nevada foothills; the mid and
higher elevations in the Sierra generally north of Yosemite; the
North Bay mountains near Mt. St. Helena; small pockets in the East
Bay near Mt. Diablo; a pocket of the Oakland Hills east of Piedmont
(generally between Highway 24 and Upper San Leandro Reservoir); the
elevated terrain east of Milpitas around the Calaveras Reservoir;
and portions of the Santa Cruz and Big Sur mountains. All of these
areas are covered by National Weather Service Red Flag Warnings,
indicating critical fire weather conditions.
To support our customers during this PSPS event, PG&E will
open 40 Community Resource Centers (CRCs) at 5 p.m. today
(Wednesday, Oct. 14). The CRCs will stay open until 10 p.m. and
then operate from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. through the event. These
temporary CRCs will be open to customers when power is out at their
homes and will provide ADA-accessible restrooms, hand-washing
stations, medical-equipment charging, WiFi; bottled water,
grab-and-go bags and non-perishable snacks.
Timeline for safety shutoffs
The first de-energization phase will begin around 6 p.m. this
evening and affect approximately 33,000 customers in portions of
the following counties in the Northern Sierra Foothills and North
Bay Mountains: Butte, Lake, Napa, Nevada, Plumas, Shasta, Solano,
Sonoma, Tehama, Yolo and Yuba.
The second phase will begin around 8 p.m. this evening and
affect approximately 19,000 customers in portions of the following
counties in the Sierra Foothills, Bay Area and Santa Cruz
Mountains: Alameda, Amador, Calaveras, Contra Costa, El Dorado,
Monterey, Nevada, Placer, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and
Sierra.
A third phase is expected to begin around 4 p.m. Thursday (Oct.
15) and affect approximately 700 customers in portions of Amador,
Calaveras, Humboldt and Trinity counties.
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.
Customer notifications—via text, email and automated phone
call—began late Monday afternoon, approximately two days prior to
the potential shutoff. An additional notification, one day prior to
the event, took place Tuesday. Customers enrolled in the company’s
Medical Baseline program who do not verify that they have received
these important safety communications will be individually visited
by a PG&E employee with a knock on their door when possible. A
primary focus will be given to customers who rely on electricity
for critical life-sustaining equipment.
Affected Counties and Customers
The power shutoff is currently expected to affect approximately
53,000 customers in the following 24 counties, including:
- Alameda County: 5,326 customers, 210 Medical Baseline
customers
- Amador County: 57 customers, 0 Medical Baseline
customers
- Butte County: 11,341 customers, 981 Medical Baseline
customers
- Calaveras County: 262 customers, 17 Medical Baseline
customers
- Contra Costa County: 929 customers, 61 Medical Baseline
customers
- El Dorado County: 1,654 customers, 73 Medical Baseline
customers
- Humboldt County: 187 customers, 1 Medical Baseline
customer
- Lake County: 82 customers, 5 Medical Baseline
customers
- Monterey County: 636 customers, 23 Medical Baseline
customers
- Napa County: 9,221 customers, 314 Medical Baseline
customers
- Nevada County: 224 customers, 6 Medical Baseline
customers
- Placer County: 389 customers, 13 Medical Baseline
customers
- Plumas County: 1,855 customers, 103 Medical Baseline
customers
- San Mateo County: 1,687 customers, 56 Medical Baseline
customers
- Santa Clara County: 2,210 customers, 103 Medical
Baseline customers
- Santa Cruz County: 5,076 customers, 351 Medical Baseline
customers
- Shasta County: 4,697 customers, 397 Medical Baseline
customers
- Sierra County: 1,052 customers, 24 Medical Baseline
customers
- Solano County: 871 customers, 66 Medical Baseline
customers
- Sonoma County: 1,777 customers, 64 Medical Baseline
customers
- Tehama County: 1,228 customers, 57 Medical Baseline
customers
- Trinity County: 178 customers, 10 Medical Baseline
customers
- Yolo County: 10 customers, 0 Medical Baseline
customers
- Yuba County: 1,841 customers, 141 Medical Baseline
customers
Total: 52,791 customers, including 3,062 Medical Baseline
customers
Customers can use an address lookup tool to find out if their
location is included in this safety shutoff at
www.pge.com/pspsupdates.
The power shutoff will affect less than 1 percent of the 5.4
million customers within PG&E’s service area. Due to
improvements to the PSPS program and infrastructure over the course
of 2020 – such as improved meteorology forecasting and guidance
tools, sectionalizing and temporary generation to energize
microgrids, substations and critical facilities and enabling local
generation facilities to serve local customers – we are able make
this upcoming PSPS event smaller in size compared to a similar 2019
PSPS event. Combined, these efforts will keep the power on for
approximately 12,750 safe-to energize customers who would have
otherwise lost power due to transmission-level outages during this
PSPS event.
Community Resource Centers Reflect COVID-Safety
Protocols
While a PSPS is an important safety tool to reduce the risk of
major wildfires during severe fire risk weather, PG&E
understands that losing power disrupts lives.
PG&E’s temporary Community Resource Centers (CRCs) will open
today from 5 to 10 p.m. (standard hours from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.) to
support our customers affected by the PSPS. The CRCs will provide
ADA-accessible restrooms, hand-washing stations; medical-equipment
charging; WiFi; bottled water; grab-and-go bags and non-perishable
snacks. The 40 CRCs, located throughout PG&E’s service area in
locations affected by the PSPS, will remain open throughout the
event.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, all CRCs will follow
important health and safety protocols including:
- Facial coverings and maintaining a physical distance of at
least six feet from those who are not part of the same household
will be required at all CRCs.
- Temperature checks will be administered before entering CRCs
that are located indoors.
- CRC staff will be trained in COVID-19 precautions and will
regularly sanitize surfaces and use Plexiglass barriers at
check-in.
- All CRCs will follow county and state requirements regarding
COVID-19, including limits on the number of customers permitted
indoors at any time.
Besides these health protocols, customers visiting a CRC in 2020
will experience further changes, including a different look and
feel. In addition to using existing indoor facilities, PG&E
will open CRCs at outdoor, open-air sites in some locations and use
large commercial vans as CRCs in other locations. CRC format will
depend on a number of factors, including input from local and
tribal leaders. Supplies also will be handed out in grab-and-go
bags at all CRCs so most customers can be on their way quickly.
PG&E updates its CRC locations regularly. Click here for
updates.
Here’s Where to Go to Learn More
- PG&E’s emergency website pge.com/pspsupdates is now
available in 13 languages. Currently, the website is available in
English, Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Russian, Vietnamese, Korean,
Farsi, Arabic, Hmong, Khmer, Punjabi and Japanese. Customers will
have the opportunity to choose their language of preference for
viewing the information when visiting the website.
- For additional language support services including how to set
language preference, select options for obtaining translated
notifications, and receive other translated resources on PSPS,
customers can visit www.pge.com/pspslanguagehelp. This website is
available in 11 languages including English, Spanish, Chinese,
Tagalog, Russian, Vietnamese, Korean, Hmong, Khmer, Punjabi and
Japanese. Customers who need in-language support over the phone can
contact us by calling 1-833-208-4167.
- Customers are encouraged to update their contact information
and indicate their preferred language for notifications by visiting
pge.com/mywildfirealerts or by calling 1-800-743-5000.
- 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 pge.com/pspszipcodealerts.
- PG&E has launched a new tool at its online Safety Action
Center safetyactioncenter.pge.com to help customers prepare. 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.
About PG&E
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E
Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is one of the largest combined natural gas
and electric energy companies in the United States. Based in San
Francisco, with more than 20,000 employees, the company delivers
some of the nation's cleanest energy to 16 million people in
Northern and Central California. For more information, visit
pge.com and pge.com/news.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201014006034/en/
MEDIA RELATIONS: 415-973-5930
PG&E (NYSE:PCG)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024
PG&E (NYSE:PCG)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024