PG&E plans cutoffs as winds pick up
Northern Calif. fire precaution may affect more than a million.
Pacific Gas and Electric may cut power to more than 1 million people in Northern and Central California on Sunday amid extreme fire weather that’s expected to bring the strongest winds and driest conditions of the year.
The utility undertakes the preemptive blackouts, which it calls public safety power shutoffs, to avoid a situation in which wind gusts could snap off tree branches or damage a piece of equipment, creating a spark that could ignite dry brush and lead to the next wildfire disaster.
Powerful and dry Diablo winds are forecast to sweep through the area starting Sunday, with sustained speeds of 25-35 mph and gusts of up to 70 mph in higher elevation areas, according to the National Weather Service.
“Initial forecasts indicate this could be our largest PSPS event this year so far,” Michael Lewis, PG&E’s interim president, said in a statement.
“Our highest priority is to keep customers and communities safe and execute this event according to our plan and to then quickly restore power to all affected customers when it’s safe to do so.”
An estimated 466,093 customers in portions of 38 Northern California counties could lose power as early as Sunday morning, the utility said in a news release. That amounts to more than 1.1 million people assuming each customer represents two to three people.
Power is expected to be restored within 12 hours after the winds subside from Monday to Tuesday morning, PG&E said.
The areas where the shutoffs are most likely to move forward are the northern and western Sacramento Valley, the Northern and Central Sierra, higher elevation portions of the Bay Area, including the Santa Cruz Mountains, the Central Coast region and portions of southern Kern County, the utility said.
El Dorado County was projected to see the most customers lose power, 41,009; followed by Nevada County with 40,252; Alameda County with 39,401; Sonoma County with 38,120 and Tuolumne County with 33,271, according to PG&E.
The National Weather Service has issued red-f lag warnings for the entire Bay Area, which means forecasters have high confidence that dangerous fire conditions will be in place.
“This is expected to be
the strongest wind event of 2020,” said David King, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Monterey.
Southern California is also expected to see fire weather conditions.
The weather service has issued a red-flag warning for all of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, except the Antelope Valley, starting late Sunday night and lasting through Tuesday evening. A high wind warning is also in effect late Sunday through Monday afternoon.
The winds could also whip up coastal waters out to Catalina Island, causing choppy seas and wind waves into the harbor, with gale force winds possible Monday, officials said.
Southern California Edison has not announced plans for any preemptive power shutoffs in its service area.
The winds in Northern California are expected to pick up about 11 a.m. Sunday in the North Bay Mountains
and East Bay hills, increasing gradually throughout the day in areas above 1,000 feet, King said.
By Sunday evening, the winds are expected to intensify and become more widespread, affecting a broader swath that encompasses much of the Bay Area, including the East Bay and Santa Clara valleys, the Santa Cruz Mountains and the San Francisco Peninsula, he said.
The strongest and most widespread period of wind is expected to be Sunday night into Monday morning, with sustained speeds of up to 35 mph and gusts of up to 70 mph at higher elevations. The winds are expected to start to subside Monday morning, but conditions will remain dry and breezy in higher terrain areas until Tuesday morning, King said.
He noted that vegetation is already critically dry since the area saw no rain in February and only limited rain in the spring.