California utility cuts power to 60,000 in proactive move to prevent wildfires
Customers in 6 counties across the Sierra Nevadas and wine country were blacked out Sunday during a windstorm.
PG&E Corp. deliberately left customers in the dark for the first time as a precaution to prevent wildfires from breaking out.
Almost 60,000 customers in six counties across the Sierra Nevada foothills and Northern California wine country were blacked out Sunday during a windstorm, according a tweet from the company’s Pacific Gas & Electric utility.
Service likely to be restored late Monday & into Tuesday
Service will likely be restored beginning late Monday and continuing into Tuesday, according to Melissa Subbotin, a company spokeswoman.
PG&E @PGE4Me Update: Public Safety Power Shutoff remains in effect for 17k customers in North Bay and 42k in Sierra Foothills. We continue to monitor the weather and will provide updates to our impacted customers in Napa, Lake, Sonoma, Amador, El Dorado and Calaveras counties. Sent via Salesforce – Social Studio.
The utility owner could be on the hook for as much as $17.3 billion in liabilities if its equipment is linked to 2017’s blazes, JPMorgan Chase & Co. estimated in August. Investigators have already said that PG&E violated state laws in 11 of last year’s fires.PG&E took a $2.5 billion pretax charge in the second quarter that was tied to some of those blazes. The state still hasn’t released its report on the Tubbs fire, the deadliest one last year.
PG&E plans to inspect each affected power line for wind damage before restarting it. Inspection crews were deployed early Monday morning, Subbotin said. The region was buffeted with wind gusts above 50 miles (80 kilometers) per hour Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.
Red-flag warnings
Red-flag warnings have been issued across a large part of northern California as dry winds, gusting to as high as 55 mph, are set to sweep across the region through late Monday, the National Weather Service said.
“Any fires that develop will likely spread rapidly,” according to a bulletin.
Sempra Energy’s San Diego Gas & Electric utility has shut down electrical lines during windstorms for years, but PG&E had long resisted taking that step. SDG&E sent warnings Monday to 4,000 customers, saying they could lose power.
A spokeswoman for Edison International, which owns California’s third investor-owned utility, said the company hasn’t yet notified any customers of an intention to shut power during forecast high winds on Monday.
Extreme fire conditions
Extreme and critical fire conditions also blanket southern California, according to the U.S. Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma. More than 14.7 million people live in areas, including Los Angeles, where dry winds could fan flames and turn grasses, brush and trees into kindling for fuel.
Some of the worst conditions could occur near Burbank, Oxnard, Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks, the center said.
Related: Insurance lessons learned from the 2017 California wildfires