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PG&E warns of possible power shutoffs in the North Bay ahead of Red Flag Warning
The Bay Area will be under a Red Flag Warning starting at 11 p.m. Thursday, continuing through Saturday at 5 p.m. Tom Vacar reports on the fire danger and possible power shutoffs from Napa County.
NAPA, Calif. - Pacific Gas & Electric began shutting off power in parts of Northern California on Thursday amid dry and windy weather conditions.
According to the latest PG&E outage map, shutoffs have already started in parts of Tehama, Glenn, Shasta and Colusa counties.
The Bay Area will be under a Red Flag Warning starting at 11 p.m. Thursday, continuing through Saturday at 5 p.m.
Many Bay Area counties are under what PG&E calls a Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) warning through Saturday, aligning with the Red Flag Warning. PG&E says it may shut off power in these Bay Area counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Napa, Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma.
"The forecast continues to indicate that dry and gusty winds are expected to develop later today through Saturday for portions of the PG&E service territory, and as a result all counties under consideration for PSPS have been moved to PSPS Warning status," PG&E says on its website.
The PSPS warnings also include Santa Cruz, Lake, Monterey and Yolo counties, plus other northern and central California counties.
In Dublin, more than 6,900 customers are without power. The power outage started at around 3:20 p.m., though this outage is not categorized as a PSPS.
PG&E told KTVU the Dublin outage is related to EPSS, or Enhanced Powerline Safety Settings. They say the cause is under investigation, but that the EPSS was activated. This kind of activation can often come from debris in the area or a tree touching a powerline, PG&E said.
"For the safety of our customers and communities, we have enhanced safety settings on our powerlines that automatically turn off power within one-tenth of a second, or faster, if a wildfire hazard is detected. These settings are known as Enhanced Powerline Safety Setting or EPSS," the utility said. The power is expected to be restored by 10 p.m.
Meanwhile, the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services said they have mobilized statewide, in preparation for weather-related fire danger. The Bay Area is included in the additional fire engines and other resources being sent throughout the state's northern counties.
"Cal OES has strategically prepositioned fire engines and personnel in multiple counties to be able to respond if needed," the state agency said in a press release.
Potential Bay Area power shutoffs
The latest Public Safety Power Shutoffs could impact an estimated 20,000 customers across 24 counties. PG&E released the following list with the number of estimated customers affected in each county.
- Alameda County: 422 customers, 24 Medical Baseline customers
- Butte County: 1,153 customers, 87 Medical Baseline customers
- Colusa County: 606 customers, 30 Medical Baseline customers
- Contra Costa County: 973 customers, 59 Medical Baseline customers
- Fresno County: 1,235 customers, 75 Medical Baseline customers
- Glenn County: 508 customers, 21 Medical Baseline customers
- Lake County: 1,088 customers, 83 Medical Baseline customers
- Madera County: 1,310 customers, 109 Medical Baseline customers
- Mariposa County: 640 customers, 15 Medical Baseline customers
- Mendocino County: 13 customers, 4 Medical Baseline customers
- Merced County: 27 customers, 0 Medical Baseline customers
- Monterey County: 597 customers, 21 Medical Baseline customers
- Napa County: 3,103 customers,135 Medical Baseline customers
- Plumas County: 316 customers, 11 Medical Baseline customers
- San Benito County: 24 customers, 0 Medical Baseline customers
- Santa Barbara County: 155 customers, 4 Medical Baseline customers
- Santa Clara County: 663 customers, 41 Medical Baseline customers
- Santa Cruz County: 132 customers, 8 Medical Baseline customers
- Shasta County: 2,407customers, 194 Medical Baseline customers
- Solano County: 1,838 customers, 159 Medical Baseline customers
- Sonoma County: 1,010 customers, 23 Medical Baseline customers
- Stanislaus County: 27 customers, 0 Medical Baseline customers
- Tehama County: 2,056 customers, 199 Medical Baseline customers
- Yolo County: 262 customers, 15 Medical Baseline customers
Fire departments in the Bay Area are staffing up and keeping a close eye on the dangerous weather conditions.
As the weather rapidly changes, new sophisticated technologies are playing a huge role, with almost 1,600 weather stations and 600 to 1,000 cameras all over PG&E's territory.
"Using our high resolution weather models that are coming in multiple times per day, four times per day. That's also coupled with the machine learning models that we're getting from our individual weather stations. And so the scope is constantly refined," said Scott Strenfel, a meteorologist with PG&E.
In Angwin, residents are preparing for potential shutoffs with as many as 2,700 customers affected.