PG&E restoring power to tens of thousands after latest shutdown

Lights began to come back on Thursday for a percentage of the thousands of Northern Californians who were zapped of their power by embattled utility company Pacific Gas and Electric during its latest planned shutdown.

PG& E conducted safety patrols and inspections after the winds passed without wreaking any significant havoc. The company said it then started to reenergize power lines once the inspections were finished.

PG& E officials said Thursday that about 51,000 customers lost their power at some point during the shutdowns. By 2 p.m., the company said 88% of those people had their power back.

The utility says that a “customer” can be a single-family home or a larger facility, meaning an average of three people may be affected for each customer who loses service.

The inspections continued through the day and had restored power to people in Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties by 7 a.m., the company said. Power in Colusa, Lake, Mendocino and Yolo counties was up and running by the same time, and PG&E said Shasta and Tehama counties were back on board by 8 a.m.

Glenn County had power back by 9 a.m., the company said.

By 1 p.m., Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Lake, Mendocino and Yolo counties were 100% restored, according to the company.

Heavy winds and dry conditions that brought red- f lag warnings for much of Northern California caused the shutdown, which did not affect as many customers as PG&E initially anticipated. The original blackout was expected to deprive 375,000 of power and affect people in Contra Costa and Alameda counties. Those two counties were spared when the weather even was more mild than the National Weather Service forecast.

Forecasters with the NWS are keeping an eye on a wind pattern that could create problems by Monday or Tuesday of next week, meteorologist Anna Schneider said. It was still too soon Thursday morning to gauge how severe that event will be.