LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Pacific Gas and Electric said late Tuesday night that it had restored power to 97 percent of the 345,000 customers in 34 counties – including Lake – whose power had been turned off over the weekend due to red flag warning conditions.
The company implemented the public safety power shutoff, or PSPS – which began on Sunday morning in some parts of the region and on Sunday afternoon in Lake County – across a large swath of PG&E’s service area.
An initial partial all-clear had been called for Lake County on Monday, with about 5 percent restored on Monday night. PG&E told Lake County News at that time that the rest of the county was set to be restored by Tuesday night.
Due to continuing high winds and dynamic weather conditions that lasted overnight Monday and into Tuesday, the weather “all clear” notification for the remaining impacted areas was issued at 1:45 p.m. Tuesday, PG&E said.
Following this all clear, PG&E crews began power restoration efforts in areas still out of power.
Ahead of restoring power, PG&E follows a protocol that involves patrolling lines and electrical equipment for damage.
PG&E said its crews have patrolled more than 17,000 miles of transmission and distribution lines using 1,800 ground patrol units, 65 helicopters and one airplane.
As of Tuesday night, PG&E said it had received 130 reports of damage or hazards to equipment – such as downed power lines or vegetation on lines – due to the high winds that moved across the region, which it said could have led to wildland fires had the PSPS not occurred.
By Tuesday night, PG&E said more than 335,000 of the approximately 345,000 customers impacted by the PSPS had power restored.
PG&E mapping indicated that by Tuesday night Lake County had power restored, with all of its community resource centers closed, according to the company’s PSPS website.
The approximately 10,000 customers still without power on Tuesday night throughout the outage area can expect to have their power restored by noon on Wednesday, PG&E officials said in a Tuesday night briefing.
Mark Quinlan, PG&E’s incident commander, said that the company doesn’t expect another PSPS for the coming week and a half.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.