300 customers could lose power today
Substations, local power plant help keep thousands powered
An estimated 300 Pacific Gas and Electric Co. customers in Humboldt County could lose power this evening, according to a spokesperson for the utility company that powers much of Northern California.
The customers — who live in unincorporated areas of the county around Bridgeville, Blocksburg, Alder point, Dinsmore, Mad River and Kneeland— already received alert notices fromthe company, said PG& E spokesperson Deanna Contreras.
PG& E is making an effort to limit the breadth of the power outage by using substations and the Humboldt Bay Generating Station in King Salmon.
“We are planning to use the generation sources at the PG&E substations in Hoopa and Willow Creek to keep thepower on for the customers in those areas,” Contreras said in an email. “We are also prepared to use the local power plant, the Humboldt Bay Generating Station, to keep the power on for thousands of customers who would otherwise be impacted due to the fact that transmission lines that serve Humboldt are in the scope of this potential PSPS event.”
Humboldt County customers could see the power go out between 7 and 8 p.m. tonight. A final decision on whether the power outage would take place was expected Wednesday evening. The company expects to restore power Friday.
Referred to as “islanding,” the King Salmon station has the ability to power thousands of Humboldt County customers separate from the PG&E grid as a whole. The station has the ability to power more populated areas of the county, including Eureka, Fortuna, Arcata and Mc Kinley ville as well as some tribal areas.
This week’s potential power outages are a result of expected high winds. Contreras said some of the interior areas ofHumboldt County could see higher winds speeds tonight. Some areas of the state could have the power cut in the earlymorning hours today due to increasing winds in the Sacramento Valley.
The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for the North Coast that is in effect through Friday morning at 11 a.m.
“Gusty north winds and widespread low humidities develop once again early Thursday morning, likely bringing critical fire weather conditions through late Fridaymorning across a large of interior Northwest California,” the warning states.
Meteorologist Doug Boushey, of the NWS Eureka office, said there is potential for wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour on the ridges today and into Friday morning.
“It’s a very diverse scenario where you have really windy, dry conditions on the ridges and cool temperatures in the valleys,” he said noting the irony of having frost warnings simultaneously with fire weather warnings
He added that there is another offshore wind event being tracked by local meteorologists that could potentially bring stronger winds than what will be seen today and Friday.
“It looks at this point stronger than the one were seeing now,” he said of the offshore wind expected late in the weekend. He added there is some “uncertainty” because it’s still five days away.