PG&E blackouts hit Northern California
PG&E Corp. shut off the lights to thousands of customers in the Sierra foothills and the North Bay Wednesday as it began its second major deliberate blackout in two weeks — and warned that it might have to pull the plug again this weekend.
The troubled utility, citing dangerous winds that could cause wildfires, said it would eventually cut power to 179,000 households and businesses in 17 Northern and Central California counties.
PG&E said the gusting winds could cause trees to come into contact with power lines or other equipment. The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for much of Northern and Central California until Thursday afternoon.
Despite intense criticism from Gov. Gavin Newsom and other officials about the blackouts, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. started de-energizing parts of its grid shortly after 2 p.m. in nearly a dozen foothill counties, the Napa and Sonoma wine country and parts of Lake and Mendocino counties, which suffered devastation during fires in 2017 and 2018.
Communities went dark in parts of El Dorado, Calaveras, Placer and Yuba counties, including areas around such population centers as Auburn and Placerville. The power outages in Butte County included Paradise, Magalia and Concow, the communities devastated by the Camp Fire last November. Cal Fire has blamed a faulty PG&E transmission tower for igniting the Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in California history.
Also blacked out: portions of Alpine, Amador, Nevada, Plumas, Sierra and Tehama counties. The utility said it would shut off power shortly after midnight Thursday in parts of San Mateo and Kern counties, for a total of 17 counties.
The lights remained on in Sacramento County, which is served by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. A SMUD spokesman emailed: “Based on the forecasted system conditions, SMUD does not anticipate having any issues as winds are expected to be (north to northeast) at 15 to 25 mph with gusts at 30 to 40 mph for Wednesday and Thursday.”
The utility said it believes it can restore power to “the vast majority of customers within 48 hours after the weather has passed.” The winds were expected to ease off Thursday afternoon in the foothills and Bay Area and Friday afternoon in Kern County.
However, another blackout could occur this weekend, utility officials indicated. On a weather map posted on its website, PG&E said there was an “elevated” chance of more shutoffs Saturday, Sunday and Monday. That shutoff could take in most of PG&E’s vast service territory.
The National Weather Service reported that winds over the weekend “could be the strongest winds so far this fall.”
The California Highway Patrol warned motorists in blacked out areas that many intersection signal lights would be out of service. “Intersections experiencing traffic light outages should be treated as a four-way stop, with the driver on the right having the right-ofway. Enter intersections only when safe to do so.”
The size of PG&E’s “public safety power shutoff” was dialed back slightly from what was expected earlier in the week. It was originally targeting 209,000 customers.