PG&E adds more counties to potential shutoff area; Senate committee holds hearing on shutoffs
- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Pacific Gas and Electric said it has expanded the area to be impacted should it go forward with a public safety power shutoff on Wednesday in response to a wind event, while a State Senate committee held a Monday hearing on how to protect state residents during the power shutoffs.
Lake is among 25 counties that are included in this week’s proposed shutoff area. Unlike the last two shutoff events last month, only a portion of Lake County is expected to be impacted.
Over the course of Monday, PG&E added 39,000 customers in portions of three counties – Santa Cruz, Santa Clara and San Mateo – to the original list of 22 counties announced earlier in the day: Alameda, Amador, Butte, Colusa, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Glenn, Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Solano, Sonoma, Tehama, Trinity, Yolo and Yuba.
Across that region, 303,000 customer accounts are expected to be impacted, PG&E said. On Monday, PG&E said it sent out advanced notifications to those customers.
In Lake County, approximately 13,370 customer accounts – just over one-third of the total customer accounts countywide – are included in the outage area, including 2,010 medical baseline customer accounts. The impacted accounts are in Clearlake, Cobb, Finley, Hidden Valley Lake, Hopland, Kelseyville, Lakeport, Loch Lomond, Lower Lake and Middletown.
The proposed outage map does not show Lakeport proper as being included, and the city of Lakeport on Monday said it had indications from PG&E that it was not to be included.
However, local officials have acknowledged that the outage scope can change due to dynamic weather conditions.
PG&E is expected to make the final decision on the power shutoff on Tuesday and announce the final locations of customer resource centers, where residents of shutoff areas can charge medical equipment, phones and other devices, get information and other basic services. The centers, however, are not shelters.
If it goes forward, the shutoff is anticipated to begin early Wednesday and continue until the wind event subsides mid-morning Thursday. Power will be restored after inspections of safety equipment, with PG&E reporting that its goal is to restore most customers by the end of the day Thursday.
In related news, on Monday, State Sen. Mike McGuire, who represents Lake County, and the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee held a special hearing to look at what actions can be taken to protect Californians during the shutoffs.
“This is the third strike for PG&E – the first was the San Bruno explosion and cover-up, the second was the massive wildfires of 2017 and 2018, and strike three is the debacle of a response to these power shutoffs. PG&E has failed us too many times. All options need to be studied and on the table – including breaking up the utility,” said McGuire.
McGuire has been named co-chair of a Senate Working Group focused on energy and insurance stability.
He said he will be helping lead the legislative discussion on power shutoffs, stabilizing California’s insurance market and wildfire resiliency.
“Holding PG&E accountable will be one of the top priorities of the legislature this coming year. We must expedite grid hardening, grid modernization and vegetation management around PG&E’s lines, especially in the most fire critical regions, which is most of the North Coast,” McGuire said. “We must mandate a clear timeline for these critical improvements, we must protect seniors and the medically fragile, set new laws that require backup power for cell phone towers and we need to ensure the California Public Utilities Commission does their job and holds this utility accountable. Californians deserve so much better.”
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