PG&E begins public safety power shutoffs portions of Northern California to reduce wildfire risk
Hot weather and windy, dry conditions prompted Pacific Gas and Electric to enact public safety power shutoffs early Wednesday in parts of the Bay Area and Northern California to help prevent wildfires.
Shortly before 2 a.m., PG&E began shutting off power in small portions of Napa County and seven other Northern California counties: Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Lake, Shasta, Tehama, and Yolo. Two tribal areas, Pit River Tribes and Grindstone Rancheria were also affected.
PG&E said some 8,400 customers were being impacted and were notified on Tuesday and again in the hours prior to de-energization.
The utility said it anticipates the power will be turned back by Wednesday afternoon with varying times depending on individual locations.
Customers can look up affected addresses at pge.com/pspsupdates.
The National Weather Service has issued a Red Flag Warning for the North Bay Mountains and the greater Sacramento Valley with the highest threat mainly along and west of Interstate 5.
KPIX Weather Center: Current conditions, alerts, maps for your area
Eastern Napa County was on high alert for fire danger until 8 p.m. Wednesday.
Red Flag Warning has been issued for the interior North Bay mountains, in effect from 11 PM this evening to 8 PM Wednesday. Conditions for rapid fire spread will be most prominent along the higher terrain in eastern Napa county. Do not burn outdoors! pic.twitter.com/vNZil5Cb0D
— NWS Bay Area 🌉 (@NWSBayArea) August 29, 2023
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District has additionally issued a Spare the Air alert for Wednesday because of a forecast of unhealthy smog levels in the region.
Public safety power shutoffs are intended to prevent fires from starting when power lines are downed by winds or struck by falling trees or windblown debris. Such fires have caused extensive destruction and deaths in California.
Wednesday's power cuts were PG&E's first since 2021. PG&E first implemented the shutoffs in 2019, leaving nearly 2 million people in the San Francisco Bay Area and elsewhere in Northern California without power and drawing fierce criticism.
The utility has since been able to reduce the impact by adding more circuit switches to its grid, allowing it to more precisely determine which customers will lose power, said Paul Moreno, a PG&E spokesperson.
PG&E also added hundreds of weather stations in areas prone to wildfires and now it has nearly 1,500 units that provide information on when fire conditions are present and when those conditions have passed, he said.
California has so far avoided widespread wildfires this year following an extraordinarily wet winter and cool spring that melted the mountain snowpack slowly. Downpours from recent Tropical Storm Hilary further dampened much of the southern half of the state.
Major fires have been limited to the southeastern desert and the lightly populated far northwest corner of the state where lightning ignited many blazes this month.