The California Independent System Operator (CAISO), which is in charge of the state’s electricity grid, can order rolling blackouts across the state during heat waves to ensure the reliability of the system. PG&E and the other of the state’s utilities may be required to take part. Most customers may expect their power to remain down for between 1 and 2 hours. These are not emergency power cuts ordered by authorities because of a high risk of fire, and they are not the result of problems with PG&E’s equipment or its capacity to provide power to the area. You may aid in the fight against blackouts by reducing your energy consumption. Raise the temperature to at least 78 degrees. It is more cost-effective to use energy-hungry home appliances before 9 p.m. or after 6 a.m. To keep the room cool, close the draperies and blinds.
To prevent further damage from wildfires, Pacific Gas and Electric has turned off the electricity to about 172,000 customers in the Sierra foothills, the northern Sierra range, and parts of the North Bay. If you estimate three individuals per family, that’s more than half a million people without electricity. Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, El Dorado, Humboldt, Lake, Lassen, Mariposa, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Sonoma, Tehama, Trinity, Tuolumne, and Yuba county residents are affected by the Public Safety Power Shutoff. Visit PG&E.com to view an interactive map of areas affected by power outages. If you want to see if your specific home is affected, just fill in your address. Between Monday night at 9 p.m. and Tuesday morning at 6 a.m., some people in these areas lost electricity; a shutdown is also likely in Kern County at around 2 p.m.
At the end of a heat wave that drove inland temperatures to over 110, a blackout occurred when hot, desiccating offshore winds formed overnight. A Red Flag Warning has been issued by the National Weather Service from Monday night at 10 p.m. to Wednesday morning at 8 a.m. for the North Bay Mountains and the East Bay Hills. The Santa Cruz Mountains will be under a red flag warning from Tuesday at 10 am to Wednesday at 8 am. On Tuesday morning, the National Weather Service reported that winds were blowing at 28 mph at Travis Air Force Base, with gusts of 40-50 mph in the East and North Bay hills. Winds may cause damage to equipment and fuel wildfires in dry conditions, which is a major issue in Northern California in 2020 due to the region’s below-average rainfall.
According to a statement posted on the company’s website, PG&E plans to “reduce restoration timeframes in half over 2019 performance” in 2020 “such that we restore power to a majority of customers within 12 daylight hours after severe weather has gone.” The major utility provider in California has promised that power outages in 2020 will affect fewer people and last less time than those that occurred in 2019 when some people were left in the dark for days. If the weather clears up, PG&E workers will start checking on electricity lines, fixing downed equipment, and reconnecting customers. The deadline for restoring electricity after a wind event is 12 hours. Power lines owned by PG&E have been the cause of some of California’s worst fires in recent memory. Strong winds can cause damage to electrical infrastructure by bringing down power lines and poles or bringing trees and other vegetation into contact with them.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. have said that it would “likely” turn off electricity to tens of thousands of homes and businesses in up to twelve counties in Northern California, the North Bay area, and the Central Valley this weekend and Monday due to extreme fire threats. According to a Friday alert, the utility company has issued a public safety power shutoff watch for the next three days due to the high winds and dry conditions expected in those regions. This could affect more than 5,700 homes and businesses, with more than half of those located in the northern Sacramento Valley county of Tehama.
According to the corporation, portions of Colusa, Glenn, Shasta, and Tehama counties would be affected on Saturday. On Saturday, PG&E will lose power to over 4,300 customers across Northern California, including over 3,150 in Tehama County, over 550 in Colusa County, over 350 in Glenn County, and close to 270 in Shasta County, as seen on the company’s online outage map. Areas of Butte, Colusa, Fresno, Glenn, Kern, Lake, Napa, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Tehama, and Yolo counties might lose power on Sunday. There might be as many as six counties affected by the cutoff on Monday: Butte, Kern, Lake, Napa, Sonoma, and Tehama.
