PG&E

KTVU reached out to each of the Bay Area’s counties to tally their costs and to find how managers decided to divert staff and resources to deal with the outages.

The utility took an unprecedented step this year, turning off its power to large swaths of customers, as they feared high winds would topple their equipment and start more fire

Wednesday was a chilly night without power for some 6,000 Santa Rosa residents. The public safety power shutoff was curtailed several times, with Pacific Gas & Electric dropping west Sonoma County only hours before it was to go dark.

Representatives from major communications companies in California were blasted for their performance and response to the October public safety power shutoffs.

Pacific Gas & Electric says it expects to get the all-clear before dawn Thursday to begin the process of restoring power to more than 100,000 people hit by a planned blackout.

Local leaders on Wednesday joined state senator Steve Glazer as he introduced legislation to improve communication during power shutoffs. 

Lawmakers wanted answers from Bill Johnson and executives from the state’s other two investor-owned utilities about the shutoffs last month that caused life-saving medication to spoil, businesses to lose money and communications networks to go dark.

Wednesday will bring another public safety power outage to Northern California. 

Tuesday morning, eight Bay Area counties were facing power shut offs. That was devastating news for the Europa Hofbrau in Contra Costa County and many other small businesses.

Pacific Gas and Electric on Tuesday scaled back the number of customers who would have been impacted by outages starting Wednesday morning. 

PG&E's Public Safety Power Shutoff that was set for Wednesday morning in the Lamorinda area of Contra Costa County appears to have been delayed to the afternoon because of changing weather conditions, authorities said.

That means businesses that recently cleaned the mess and restocked losses from last month's blackout, are facing a repeat. 

During a power shutoff or disaster, advanced warning is expected, but the patchwork of technology and lack of uniformity causes confusion across the Bay Area, forcing many alerts to be missed, delayed or lost.

Pacific Gas and Electric warned customers of another potential round of shutoffs that could impact 303,000 customers in 24 counties beginning Wednesday morning. 

PG&E CEO Bill Johnson and other officials from PG&E testified before the State Senate energy, utilities and communications committee. The bankrupty utility responding to questions about the protocol, response and future of public safety power shutoffs. 

PG&E is monitoring a potentially strong offshore wind event this week that could prompt a power safety shutoff