LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – As power restoration continued on Friday following what is believed to be the biggest electrical shutoff of its kind, more waves of residents around Lake County reported getting power service back.
As of the latest information released Friday night, Pacific Gas and Electric said it had restored power to 97 percent of the customers impacted by the public safety power shutoff which began early Wednesday.
Systemwide, 738,000 customers – a number relating to accounts – were affected from the Northern Sierra to the Greater Bay Area to Kern County, PG&E said.
In Lake County, 37,403 customers were included in the shutoff. By Friday night, 98 percent of Lake County’s residents had power restored, according to PG&E spokesperson Fiona Chan.
In Lucerne, where power began to come back late Thursday night, Lucerne Elementary School went on with classes on Friday, although Superintendent Mike Brown reported the bus was running about an hour late.
In the Lakeport, Konocti, Middletown and Upper Lake school districts, school remained closed on Friday due to the continuing outage, with classes in those district set to resume next week.
On Friday morning, residents of areas including Hidden Valley and Lakeport reported their power came back on, with Kelseyville said to be restored Friday night.
PG&E said it initiated the shutoff on Wednesday due to dry, windy weather across its service area, which also had led the National Weather Service to issue a red flag warning for Lake County and much of the rest of Northern California. That warning expired on Friday morning.
Wind gusts in excess of 70 miles per hour were recorded Wednesday evening and into Thursday, PG&E said.
The company’s system for tracking weather includes more than 600 weather stations, 200 of which have been added this year.
Chan said there are 12 weather stations and one high definition wildfire camera installed in Lake County.
Before reenergizing the impacted communities, PG&E deployed 6,300 on-the-ground field personnel and 44 staged helicopters to conduct safety patrols and inspections, which the company said can only take place during daylight hours. Those inspections will continue at daybreak on Saturday.
PG&E officials said those inspections have identified 30 instances of weather-related damage to its system in the shutoff-impacted areas, and the company is working to address these repairs.
Examples of damage included downed lines and vegetation on power lines, which PG&E President and CEO Bill Johnson said during a Friday evening press briefing could have led to fires.
Chan said that in Lake County there were two reports of damage to equipment from the wind event.
There were 25,000 miles of electrical lines that were deenergized across PG&E’s service area as part of the shutoff and which required inspection before restoring power, the company said.
Chan said in Lake County, electrical system line miles total 715.1 for distribution and 201 for transmission. She could not say late Friday how much of the county’s lines had been inspected.
The company said it will be submitting a report detailing the damages to the system to the California Public Utilities Commission within 10 days of the completion of the shutoff.
PG&E has operated more than 30 community resource centers throughout the shutoff areas, including one at the Clearlake Senior/Community Center, 3245 Bowers Ave. in Clearlake. The centers provide water, phone charging stations, air-conditioned seating and restrooms for customers.
Centers in communities where power hasn’t yet been fully restored – including Lake County – will be open again from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, PG&E reported.
Company continues to face criticism over shutoffs
PG&E executives this week have continued to defend and explain the need for cutting power to much of the region in the face of mounting criticism from residents and state leaders.
This week, Gov. Gavin Newsom promised to hold PG&E accountable and said the shutoff had been carried out too broadly and created an “unacceptable” situation.
On Friday, Assemblymember Marc Levine (D-Marin County) joined the chorus of critics, calling the shutoff “irresponsible and incompetent.”
“For decades, PG&E has lined the pockets of their investors with billions while abandoning their legal obligation to deliver energy safely to homes and businesses throughout the state. PG&E’s latest stunt by cutting power to over two million Californians put vulnerable populations at risk, kept over 130,000 students from attending school and failed to address PG&E’s continued neglect of their electrical infrastructure,” Levine said.
Levine even went so far as to suggest that “something more sinister” is on PGE’s agenda. “For years PG&E has unsuccessfully sought legislation to eliminate ‘inverse condemnation,’ or in common terms, the requirement that PG&E be financially liable for wildfire damage caused by their equipment.”
As for the possibility of impacted customers receiving some manner of compensation for losses incurred during the shutoff, during a Friday evening press briefing, Johnson said it’s the policy of all utilities in the state that when there is a weather event, they are not liable for the costs.
With California having experienced winds, drought and wildland fires in the past, Johnson was asked why measures such as the shutoff weren’t taken earlier.
Johnson said the risk has increased dramatically over the past few years. “Were we fully prepared to meet this risk? No, we weren’t,” he said.
He added, “The risk is increasing every year. And this is a climate-related risk.”
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