GOING DARK: Nearly 1million customers to lose power.

Utility expands map for power outages to include 90,000 more customers

SAN FRANCISCO >> Pacific Gas & Electric Co. on Saturday began cutting power to 940,000 customers — 90,000 more than initially planned — in a desperate effort to prevent catastrophic wildfires that could be fanned by exceptionally powerful winds.

The North Bay and northern Sierra foothills were among the first areas to lose power about 5 p.m., said Mark Quinlan, the utility’s incident commander for the public safety power shutoff. Parts of the East Bay and South Bay were expected to do likewise at 8 p.m. Quinlan said the utility plans to continue shutting off the power in waves through Sunday evening, ultimately affecting well over 2 million residents in 36 counties.

And possibly before all that power is restored, yet another round of shutoffs could be activated. Andy Vesey, utility CEO and president of PG&E, said a fourth series of shutoffs could come as early as this week.

“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Vesey said.

PG&E said it expanded its map of affected customers in some areas because of “historic wind event” expected to arrive last evening.

“This wind event is forecast to be the most serious weather situation that Northern and Central California has experienced in recent memory,” said Michael Lewis, PG&E’S senior vice president of electric operations. “We would only take this decision for one reason — to help reduce catastrophic wildfire risk to our customers and communities. There is no compromising the safety of our customers, which is our most important responsibility.”

Though the number of people projected to lose power across PG&E’S coverage area has increased, the blackout area in many Bay Area counties slightly shrunk in the utility’s latest estimates.

PG&E said Saturday that 57,002 customers in Alameda County, 48,058 in Contra Costa County, 57,218 in San Mateo County and 27,094 in Santa Clara County are expected to lose power.

That’s just over 9,000 fewer total customers across those four counties than had been projected to see blackouts in plans released Friday. Most of those getting a reprieve were in San Mateo County, where the planned outage is set to affect 7,714 fewer customers.

Officials recommended residents use the address search tool on the PG&E website to find out whether their homes will lose electricity. That feature is more precise than the maps of outage areas PG&E has produced.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people in parts of Piedmont and Oakland’s Montclair district who already were bracing for the shutoff were surprised to find their power go out briefly late Saturday morning, hours before what they expected. But that outage was not connected to the planned power shutoff, according to PG&E.

A city of Oakland spokesman said officials were monitoring reports of isolated outages, which also included flashing red lights on 35th Avenue and Macarthur

Boulevard.

The utility’s updated plans called for the shutoffs to roll out across the state starting at 5 p.m. Saturday in 12 counties encompassing the Sierra Nevada and parts of the Central Valley, as well as North Bay counties including Marin, Napa, Solano and Sonoma.

Customers Alameda, Contra Costa, Monterey, San Benito, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties were told they would lose power starting at 8 p.m.

The utility was also poised to cut power on the North Coast at 9 p.m. and in the southern Sierra foothills at midnight.

A final phase, starting at 9 p.m. today, will affect fewer than 1,000 customers in Kern County, although the utility said it was also eyeing potential shutoffs in Madera and Fresno counties.

Although PG&E faced withering criticism from customers and public officials, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, for a similar shutoff across much of the Bay Area and Northern California less than three weeks ago, this outage is set to be even bigger.

Weather models indicate the combination of wind and heat this weekend could be the most powerful in California in years, with dry offshore winds expected to gust of 45-60 mph. Peak gusts of 65-80 mph are possible at higher elevations.

“It has the potential to be one of the strongest in the last several years,” PG&E principal meteorologist Scott Strenfel said in a statement. “It’s also likely to be longer than recent wind events, which have lasted about 12 hours or less.”

Customers should prepare for a shutoff lasting at least two days after the winds die down, according to the company.