PG&E to move forward with Wednesday power shutoff; scope in Lake County narrowed
- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Pacific Gas and Electric said Tuesday night that it was moving forward with cutting power to 18 counties beginning early Wednesday morning in response to a weather event forecast to bring high winds.
The company confirmed the shutoff just before 9 p.m. Tuesday, after a day and a half of issuing preliminary warnings that a public safety power shutoff could occur.
The announcement also came after light rain was reported across parts of Lake County and other locations in the shutoff area.
PG&E said it has further narrowed the scope of the shutoff, now down to 18 counties and less than 150,000 customer accounts, that latter number about half of the company’s peak estimate issued on Monday night.
In another update at around 11 p.m. Tuesday, PG&E spokeswoman Deanna Contreras told Lake County News that the scope for Lake County has been narrowed down to a total of 12,854 customer accounts.
Contreras said she could confirm the shutoffs are expected to begin at 7 a.m. Wednesday in Lake County.
PG&E had adjusted the outage area in Lake County on Tuesday, shifting it away from the main part of Kelseyville and further south to areas around Hidden Valley Lake and Middletown, where wind gusts of more than 30 miles per hour are forecast Wednesday.
Other locations in Lake County to be impacted include Clearlake, Cobb, Hidden Valley Lake, Kelseyville, Lakeport – not the city of Lakeport but an area to the west, near Hopland – along with Loch Lomond and Lower Lake.
In addition to Lake, the counties to be included in the shutoff are Amador, Butte, Colusa, El Dorado, Glenn, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Solano, Sonoma, Tehama, Yolo and Yuba, PG&E said Tuesday night.
In a Tuesday evening briefing, Mark Quinlan, PG&E’s senior director for emergency preparedness and response, said the change in scope is the result of favorable weather conditions.
Across the shutoff area, power is scheduled to go off as early as 6 a.m. Wednesday, with others not seeing the shutoff taking place until 4 p.m., PG&E said.
PG&E said the decision to move forward with the shutoff – the fourth to impact Lake County since the start of October – was made based on “weather forecasts indicating the potential for high winds and dry conditions leading to increased fire risk.”
He said deenergization in the North Bay could take place between 7 and 8 a.m. Wednesday.
PG&E said there is still “considerable uncertainty regarding the strength, timing and humidity levels associated with this weather system,” however, it expects the winds to clear about mid-morning Thursday, which will allow the patrol and restoration process to begin.
Quinlan said 5,600 personnel and 45 helicopters will be part of the inspection process.
PG&E said it will “safely restore power in stages as quickly as possible, with the goal of restoring the most customers by the end of the day Thursday, based on the current weather conditions.”
Five community resource centers will open on Wednesday in Lake County to offer restrooms, device charging, bottled water and information. They will remain open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. during the outage.
The centers in Lake County will be at the following locations:
– Clearlake Senior Community Center, 3245 Bowers Ave., Clearlake;
– Konocti Vista Casino, 2755 Mission Rancheria Road, Lakeport;
– Twin Pine Casino & Hotel, 22223 Highway 29, Middletown;
– Robinson Rancheria Resort and Casino, 1545 State Highway 20, Nice;
– The Scotts Valley Pomo tribe’s Red Hills property, 7130 Red Hills Road, Kelseyville.
Customers are encouraged to use PG&E’s address lookup tool to see if they will be impacted by the shutoff.
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