PG&E cancels power shutoffs for Bay Area counties as restoration continues

OAKLAND, Calif. - Pacific Gas and Electric's power restoration is set to continue Friday morning with an expected full restoration of all 31,000 customers affected on Friday night. 

Strong winds in the forecast, along with low humidity and dry conditions prompted the preventative outage on Wednesday, but a change in weather conditions allowed the utility company to reduce the scope of the Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) from 15 counties to nine. 

74% of PG&E customers whose power was shutoff has already been restored. 

PG&E customers in the Bay Area were spared from the latest power shutoffs that impacted other parts of Northern California. 

PG&E notified approximately 4,331 customers in Alameda, Contra Costa, Lake, Napa, Santa Clara, and Sonoma counties that they could lose power with severe winds forecast to ramp up Wednesday night into Friday. However, the severe weather event no longer posed a significant threat to those areas, so PG&E kept customers in those counties energized. 

The power shutoff has impacted customers across Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Humboldt, Plumas, Shasta, Tehama, Trinity, and Yolo counties.

PG&E meteorologists are monitoring an additional potential wind event due to arrive Sunday. They say it has the potential to be a larger scale event than the PSPS event that began on Wednesday. Customers could start seeing notifications of a potential shutoff for that event on Friday. 

Another fire weather watch is on the horizon starting Sunday at 11 a.m. through Tuesday at 11 a.m. for the North Bay Mountains, North Bay interior valleys, East Bay Interior Valleys, Santa Cruz Mountains, East Bay Hills and the Diablo Range. 

In addition a red flag warning remains in effect through Friday at 8 a.m. for the North Bay Mountains, East Bay Interior Valleys, East Bay Hills and the Diablo Range.