Due to highest winds and driest conditions of season expected Sunday morning through Monday morning, with windy conditions lingering in some regions through early Tuesday
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) will de-energize certain electrical lines for safety which started Sunday morning, Oct. 25 as part of a Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS). PG&E is calling a PSPS due to a significant, offshore wind event starting Sunday that is forecast to have the driest humidity levels and the strongest winds of the wildfire season thus far, that together create high risk of catastrophic wildfires.
The PSPS event will affect approximately 361,000 customers in targeted portions of 36 counties, including: Alameda, Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Fresno, Glenn, Humboldt, Kern, Lake, Madera, Marin, Mariposa, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Tehama, Trinity, Tuolumne, Yolo and Yuba. Some customers in 17 tribal communities will also be affected.
Some customers previously notified about the potential PSPS will not have their power turned off during this event. This is due to a combination of favorable changes in the weather forecast. Approximately 105,000 customers will not be turned off for this reason. Additionally, another 84,000 will remain energized through the event due to islanding, temporary generation, and other methods.
Affected Customers in Contra Costa County: 17,966 customers, 883 Medical Baseline customers could potentially be affected by this PSPS event.
Timeline for Safety Shutoffs
The de-energization will begin around 10 a.m. Sunday morning, beginning with customers in the Northern Sierra region. Shutoffs will continue through Monday into late evening.
Weather is expected to subside Monday morning for the majority of customers, and by Tuesday morning for the remainder. Once it does and it is safe to do so, PG&E will patrol the de-energized lines to determine if they were damaged during the wind event and repair any damage found. PG&E will then safely restore power in stages and as quickly as possible, with the goal of restoring power to nearly all customers within 12 daylight hours after severe weather has passed.
Resource for customers
Customer notifications
Customer notifications—via text, email and automated phone call—began Friday, Oct. 23, approximately two days prior to the potential shutoff. Additional notifications one day prior to the event took place Saturday, Oct. 24. Customers enrolled in the company’s Medical Baseline program who do not verify that they have received these important safety communications will be individually visited by a PG&E employee with a knock on their door when possible with a focus on customers who rely on electricity for critical life-sustaining equipment.
Community Resource Centers
To support our customers during this PSPS, PG&E will open 106 Community Resource Centers (CRCs). For customers with power turning off Sunday morning, CRCs will be open from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. today. All CRCs will operate from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. throughout the event. These temporary CRCs will be open to customers when power is out at their homes and will provide ADA-accessible restrooms, hand-washing stations, medical-equipment charging, WiFi; bottled water, grab-and-go bags and non-perishable snacks.
PG&E updates its CRC locations regularly. To find CRC locations, visit pge.com/crc.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, all CRCs will follow important health and safety protocols including:
- Facial coverings and maintaining a physical distance of at least six feet from those who are not part of the same household will be required at all CRCs.
- Temperature checks will be administered before entering CRCs that are located indoors.
- CRC staff will be trained in COVID-19 precautions and will regularly sanitize surfaces and use Plexiglass barriers at check-in.
- All CRCs will follow county and state requirements regarding COVID-19, including limits on the number of customers permitted indoors at any time.
Besides these health protocols, customers visiting a CRC in 2020 will experience further changes, including a different look and feel. In addition to using existing indoor facilities, PG&E is planning to open CRCs at outdoor, open-air sites in some locations and use large commercial vans as CRCs in other locations. CRC locations will depend on a number of factors, including input from local and tribal leaders.
Online Resources for Customers
- Customers can look up their address online to find out if their location is being monitored for the potential safety shutoff at www.pge.com/pspsupdates.
- PG&E’s emergency website pge.com/pspsupdates is now available in 13 languages. Currently, the website is available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Russian, Vietnamese, Korean, Farsi, Arabic, Hmong, Khmer, Punjabi and Japanese. Customers will have the opportunity to choose their language of preference for viewing the information when visiting the website. In addition, PG&E’s contact center has translation services available in over 200 languages. Customers who need in-language support over the phone can contact us by calling 1-833-208-4167.
- For additional language support services including how to set language preference, select options for obtaining translated notifications, and receive other translated resources on PSPS, customers can visit pge.com/pspslanguagehelp. This website is also available in 13 languages as listed above.
- Customers are encouraged to update their contact information and indicate their preferred language for notifications by visiting pge.com/mywildfirealerts or by calling 1-800-743-5000. PG&E’s contact center has translation services available in over 200 languages.
- Tenants and non-account holders can sign up to receive PSPS ZIP Code Alerts for any area where you do not have a PG&E account by visiting pge.com/pspszipcodealerts.
- PG&E has launched a new tool at its online Safety Action Center at safetyactioncenter.pge.com to help customers prepare. By using the “Make Your Own Emergency Plan” tool and answering a few short questions, visitors to the website can compile and organize the important information needed for a personalized family emergency plan.
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