PG&E scales back shutoffs
‘Favorable weather conditions’; most of Bay Area not impacted
SAN FRANCISCO >> Pacific Gas & Electric scaled back the scope of potential power shutoffs this week, stating that most of the Bay Area would escape the impacts of shutoffs planned to begin today, with only about 150,000 customers in 18 counties facing possible outages.
Earlier warnings had suggested that as many as 303,000 customers — or about 900,000 people — across Northern California would lose power. Customers in six counties in and around the Bay Area — Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and San Mateo — no longer will be affected by the latest shutdown.
“We were able to reduce scope overnight due to favorable weather conditions,” Mark Quinlan, a PG&E senior director overseeing the shutoff, said at a Tuesday evening press conference. “If conditions change, we will pivot and change with the weather.”
Drying vegetation and gusty winds prompted the National Weather Service to upgrade a fire weather watch to a red flag warning that would take effect around 4 a.m. today and last through Thursday across the North Bay Mountains, East Bay Hills and Diablo Range. In parts of the East and North Bay, forecasts called for north-northeast winds of 20 to 30 mph, with gusts of 35 to 45 mph.
Though local officials publicly cheered the news that the power would stay on, they also expressed frustration with the frequent changes in guidance from PG&E, noting that since Monday, the utility’s projections for the number of customers impacted has oscillated wildly, nearly doubling — from 180,000 to 303,000 — before dropping down again.
“Agencies and people are preparing for an outage because we want to be prepared. Then when they pull the plug on the outage, we’re glad. But living in these uncertain times is inconvenient and costs money because of the time to prepare,” said John Gioia, chair of the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors.
For example, “Restaurants are planning what to do, which could involve bringing in generators,” Gioia said. “It’s inconvenience and money. It is unacceptable for the fifth-largest economy in the world to go through regular power outages and threats of power outages. We need to fix our electrical grid and transmission system.”
PG&E spokeswoman Tamar Sarkissian said the latest public safety power shutoff, or PSPS, was scaled back due to changes in the utility’s weather forecast.
“The latest weather models have trended weaker and have increased moisture in
some areas, primarily in Marin, the East Bay and the Santa Cruz Mountains,” Sarkissian said. “Based on the ongoing weather monitoring that our meteorologists have been doing and this new trend in the weather, we were able to scale back and remove some of the Bay Area counties from the scope of our potential PSPS.”
Though San Jose was not expected to be impacted by the latest shutdowns, Mayor Sam Liccardo said Tuesday that he’s heard plenty of
frustration from other officials as the blackouts have continued. The city is leading a coalition of almost two dozen cities and five counties in California calling for a takeover of PG&E by its ratepayers.
“What I hear is that two things can be true — people are really frustrated by the blackouts, but they’re really concerned about the prospect of wildfires,” Liccardo said. “We critically need to have officials representing the public in the room when these power-shutdown decisions are being made.”
The complaints add to the mounting frustration with PG&E, which has blundered through a series
of public safety shutdowns this fall, plagued by repeated issues with its website crashing and confused communication with customers and local government agencies.
The shutdowns impacted millions of people across the state last month, most recently on Oct. 26 when 975,000 customers lost power across 38 counties — some for as many as four days. That same week, on Oct. 23, power went out for nearly 180,000 customers across 17 counties, according to the California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates PG&E. The Oct. 9 shutdown affected some 729,000 customers.
A single “customer” in PG&E’s terms could mean many more people at an apartment complex or other residential facility.
At a news conference Tuesday night, PG&E Utility CEO and President Andy Vesey said the utility understood the impacts of the shutdowns and was working to reduce them.
“Next year, we will not be in this situation,” Vesey said. “We will be able to protect the public in ways that aren’t as terribly disruptive as they are today. We know it, we get it, we don’t want to do it and we will do everything we can to minimize those impacts.”
While the Bay Area seems
to have escaped the latest outages, the weather forecast remains unchanged in the Bay Area, and a red flag warning remains in effect.
In Contra Costa County, fire protection district crews were still preparing Tuesday for another round of high, dry winds that could fuel fires across the region. The district has received state funding to have prepositioned crews ready during fire season, which has helped, as was the case Oct. 27 when firefighters battled eight wildfires in one day during “historic” winds.
“We have a pretty good track record of keeping small fires small. People may start to think we are immune,” said Steve Hill, a spokesman for the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District. “But there’s nothing much different about this area from that of California Wine Country or other parts of the state that have faced major fires in recent years. Nothing different about terrain or the wildland-urban interface areas.”
“The last thing we want,” he added, “is for people to start thinking we are immune.”