The company’s 21-page report on the public safety power shutoff to the California Public Utilities Co., dated Oct. 31, was released publicly the same day. The full report is posted below.
“Ultimately, the decision to shut off power was made for one reason – to keep our communities and customers safe and help reduce the risk of wildfires,” PG&E said in its report.
The company currently is being sued by a number of local governments impacted by the October 2017 wildland fires. The Lake County Board of Supervisors and the Clearlake City Council have both voted to join litigation against the company over the Sulphur fire, as Lake County News has reported.
PG&E’s first-ever public safety power shutoff occurred from Oct. 14 to 17. It said an estimated 60,000 customers in the North Bay and Sierra Foothills were impacted.
In Lake County the shutoff resulted in the closure of the Kelseyville, Konocti, Lakeport and Middletown school districts, the Lake County Office of Education’s Clearlake Creativity and Hance Schools, and the Lake County Campus of Woodland Community College in Clearlake. The Lucerne and Upper Lake school districts stayed in session as the shutoff did not impact those communities.
Lake County News received reports from community members in the shutoff areas raising concerns due to their need for medical equipment and devices such as CPAP machines.
“The impact of this was pretty significant,” said Lake County Sheriff Brian Martin, who was critical of PG&E’s efforts at notifying local officials and providing accurate and consistent information.
Initiating the shutoff
In the report, PG&E stated that it made “the difficult decision to proactively de-energize portions of its service territory,” adding that the decision was “in the interest of public safety” and in accordance with CPUC Resolution ESRB-8, passed by the CPUC in July.
That resolution provided guidelines that electric utilities must follow and strengthened public safety requirements when a utility decides to de-energize its facilities during dangerous conditions.
The CPUC resolution also requires PG&E and other utilities to meet with the local communities that may be impacted by a future de-energization event before putting the practice in effect in a particular area, and requires customer notifications prior to a de-energization event, if feasible.
“This decision did not come easily, was not made lightly, and was exercised as an option of last resort,” the PG&E report said of the shutoff.
The report said that PG&E activated its Emergency Operations Center on Saturday, Oct. 13, in response to weather conditions with increasing fire risk conditions, including forecasted high winds and extremely low humidity. The company said it also communicated with 97,000 customers across 12 counties where the forecasted weather and wildfire potential indicated high likelihood of impacts to the company’s equipment and facilities.
“Ultimately, PG&E made the decision to temporarily turn off power for customer safety to about 60,000 customers in seven counties. Power was turned off for safety on Sunday, October 14, beginning at approximately 20:00 in the North Bay, followed later that evening in the Sierra Foothills. A PSPS event was determined to be unnecessary for the remaining approximately 37,000 customers who also had been notified of the possibility of a PSPS event on Saturday, October 13,” the report said.
As to the number of Lake County residents actually impacted, an approximate estimate has so far not been given.
PG&E had previously estimated that 12,000 customers were impacted by the shutoff.
In response to questions about that number from Lake County News, PG&E spokeswoman Deanna Contreras said Saturday that she confirmed that approximately 12,136 meters – or residential and business accounts – were impacted by the shutoff in Lake County.
“Some of those meters are what’s called a master meter and one meter would serve a trailer park, for example. Those residents pay the landlord, manager or owner directly. And they most likely would not have individual accounts, so PG&E would not be able to identify them,” Contreras said.
Of those 12,136 customers on those impacted Lake County circuits, there were 10,183 residential customers; 1,116 commercial customers; 520 customers on “medical baseline,” a financial assistance program for residential customers that have special energy needs due to certain qualifying medical conditions; and 837 reported as “other.” A small portion of that overall total may also include Napa County, as one of the Middletown circuits also serves the Calistoga area.
PG&E reported that there also were 19 schools, 19 health care facilities – including hospitals – and 80 water agencies in Lake County that were in the shutoff area.
Brian Bottari, a PG&E spokesman, told the Board of Supervisors in October that he estimated Lake County had meters numbering in the “high 20,000s.”
The process of restoring power
PG&E’s report said that overnight Sunday, Oct. 14, and into the morning of Monday, Oct. 15, portions of the North Bay region experienced wind gusts of approximately 50 miles per hour. In the Sierra, wind gusts of up to approximately 45 miles per hour, with 120 mile-per-hour gusts recorded at the Kirkwood Ski Resort in the Sierra.
On Monday, Oct. 15, once conditions had improved and were safe, PG&E crews began to inspect more than 3,400 miles of PG&E transmission and distribution power lines.
Contreras said that crews first inspected substations before the thousands of miles of transmission line were inspected via helicopters, vehicles and on foot. The crews looked for potential damage to the line, poles and towers, and once they were determined safe to operate, the infrastructure was tested.
The inspections revealed wind-related damage to PG&E equipment, including 18 damaged spans of conductor, five 5 damaged cross-arms, three damaged insulators, two damaged fuses, one damaged transformer and one damaged pole, all of which were repaired prior to the lines being reenergized, according to PG&E’s report.
In response to inquiries from Lake County News, PG&E has not so far identified any locations in Lake County where damage was found.
However, the report showed pictures of damaged equipment including a cross arm and conductor damaged by a split tree in Foresthill in Placer County and a primary conductor damaged by a fallen tree limb near Calistoga in Sonoma County.
The report explained that, by midnight on Monday, Oct. 15, power to approximately 40,000 customers had been safely restored. By 11 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 16, nearly all customers were restored, with the remaining three dozen customers having their power restored by 9 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 17.
As of Oct. 24, PG&E reported that it has received 146 claims for damages due to the shutoff. Those include 25 for business interruption/ economic impact, 17 for property damage; two for property damage with business interruption/ economic impact, and 102 food loss. however, the company sait it has “stated publicly that because of the safety-related nature of PSPS events, customers will not be reimbursed for associated losses.”
Sheriff Martin said there were widespread reports of businesses and individuals losing food and, as a result, suffering financial loss, noting that the impact was far wider than just the immediate customers whose power was turned off.
Evaluating the shutoff
Once all customers had power restored, PG&E said began a five-day evaluation process to look at what could be improved. It also participated in public meetings.
One of those meetings was with the Lake County Board of Supervisors on Oct. 16, during which county officials voiced their concerns about how the shutoff was handled, including a dearth of clear communication or issues with conflicting information, as Lake County News has reported.
The PG&E report to the CPUC said the company notified a number of local leaders directly about the shutoff: County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson, Lake County Fire Chief Willie Sapeta, Sheriff Martin, Supervisor Jim Steele, Supervisor Moke Simon, Supervisor Rob Brown, Congressman Mike Thompson’s district aide Brad Onorato, Lake County Office of Emergency Services Manager Dale Carnathan, District 2 county supervisor-elect and Clearlake Mayor Bruno Sabatier, and Lakeport City Manager Margaret Silveira.
An after action meeting involving local officials and PG&E took place at the Lake County Fairgrounds in Lakeport on Oct. 25. The meeting was not open to the press.
Later that same day, Clearlake City Manager Greg Folsom told the Clearlake City Council that he and Clearlake Police Chief Andrew White attended the meeting, which he called “constructive,” and looked at ways to better handle such a shutdown if it should happen again.
Sheriff Martin, who had faulted PG&E for its mixed communications and lack of consistency in its information, told Lake County News in a Friday interview that PG&E representatives at the Oct. 25 meeting “were pretty receptive to some of our suggestions.”
He said the meeting covered ways to improve outreach and looked at impact. Among those in attendance were representatives Martin and Huchingson, Lake County OES, the cities of Clearlake and Lakeport, Lakeport Unified School District, the Lake County Office of Education, Red Cross, Clearlake Police, Lakeport Police the California Highway Patrol, Lake County Fire, Lake County Public Health, local dialysis clinics and the Lake County Chamber of Commerce.
“I was appreciative that PG&E showed up and explained it,” Martin said.
Martin said county officials also told PG&E that it was creating a situation that has an impact on public resources and so the company may need to contribute financially to cover that.
As for his conclusion about the effectiveness of the shutoff, Martin isn’t sure.
“Did it prevent a fire? Who knows?” he said.
However, PG&E’s report on the shutoff said it continues to view the public safety power shutoff as “a tool of last resort” in its overall wildfire mitigation strategy.
“Knowing the potential impacts of this safety measure on our customers and communities, PG&E views this as an extreme measure that should be taken with great care and will continue to learn from the use of PSPS to develop and implement improvements,” the report stated.
Contreras said PG&E plans to focus on notifying customers earlier, providing local officials and first responders with more detailed information, notifying communities of estimated time of restoration more, and improving the processes to reduce restoration times.
Below is a list of the circuits impacting Lake County and how they were impacted by the public safety power shutoff, according to the PG&E report to the CPUC.
IMPACTED LAKE COUNTY CIRCUITS
CLEAR LAKE-1101
Tiers: Tier 2, Tier 3
Start date and time: 10/14/18 at 20:30
Restoration date and time: 10/15/2018 at 16:13
Areas impacted: Kelseyville, Lakeport, Finley
Number of customers impacted: 491 (residential, 300; commercial, 98; medical baseline, 9; other, 93)
HIGHLANDS-1102
Tiers: Tier 2, Tier 3
Start date and time: 10/14/18 at 20:40
Restoration date and time: 10/16/2018 at 18:21
Areas impacted: Clearlake Oaks
Number of customers impacted: 25 (residential, 15; commercial, 15; medical baseline, 0; other, 3)
KONOCTI-1102
Tiers: Tier 2, Tier 3
Start date and time: 10/14/18 at 20:28
Restoration date and time: 10/16/2018 at 12:58
Areas impacted: Cobb, Kelseyville, Lower Lake, Middletown
Number of customers impacted: 2,800 (residential, 2,322; commercial, 283; medical baseline, 91; other, 195)
MIDDLETOWN-1101
Tiers: Tier 2, Tier 3
Start date and time: 10/14/18 at 20:39
Restoration date and time: 10/16/2018 at 15:40
Areas impacted: Calistoga, Cobb, Kelseyville, Middletown
Number of customers impacted: 1,999 (residential, 1,565; commercial, 274; medical baseline, 58; other, 160)
MIDDLETOWN-1102
Tiers: Tier 2, Tier 3
Start date and time: 10/14/18 at 20:39
Restoration date and time: 10/15/18 at 17:49
Areas impacted: Hidden Valley Lake, Middletown
Number of customers impacted: 2,342 (residential, 2,074; commercial, 199; medical baseline, 100; other, 69)
MIDDLETOWN-1103
Tiers: Tier 2, Tier 3
Start date and time: 10/14/18 at 20:39
Restoration date and time: 10/15/18 at 17:49
Areas impacted: Middletown
Number of customers impacted: 156 (residential, 96; commercial, 37; medical baseline, 3; other, 23)
REDBUD-1101
Tiers: Tier 2, Tier 3
Start date and time: 10/14/18 at 20:39
Restoration date and time: 10/15/18 at 17:50
Areas impacted: Clearlake Oaks
Number of customers impacted: 916 (residential, 780; commercial, 52; medical baseline, 48; other, 84)
REDBUD-1102
Tiers: Tier 2, Tier 3
Start date and time: 10/14/18 at 20:35
Restoration date and time: 10/15/18 at 17:53
Areas impacted: Clearlake, Clearlake Oaks, Clearlake Park
Number of customers impacted: 3,407 (residential, 3,031; commercial, 166; medical baseline, 211; other, 210)
KONOCTI MIDDLETOWN 60 kV LINE
Tiers: Tier 2, Tier 3
State date and time: 10/14/18 at 20:39
Restoration date and time: 10/15/2018 at 11:19
Areas impacted: Not applicable
Number of customers impacted: Not applicable
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.
103118 PG&E Public Safety Power Shutoff report to the CPUC by LakeCoNews on Scribd