PG&E restores power to customers impacted by Monday PSPS, begins preparing for possible shut-off on Thursday
- Elizabeth Larson
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Just as Pacific Gas and Electric Co. finished restoring power to 25,000 customers across portions of the state on Tuesday night because of a public safety power shut-off, the company said it is preparing for another possible shut-off beginning early Thursday.
Just over 4,000 Lake County customers — most of them in the south county — were included in the public safety power shut-off, or PSPS, that began early Monday and was completed by Tuesday night.
PG&E spokeswoman Deanna Contreras told Lake County News on Tuesday night that all Lake County customers impacted by the PSPS had their power restored by that point.
After the all clear was called by company meteorologists on Monday night, and before restoring power, PG&E crews patrolled power transmission equipment to look for damage.
PG&E said preliminary data shows at least four instances of weather-related damage and hazards in the PSPS-affected areas, including vegetation on lines.
The company said that wind-caused damage could have resulted in wildfire ignitions had it not de-energized power lines.
While PG&E has completed this latest PSPS, it’s already looking at another.
The company said Tuesday night that it is continuing to monitor another weather system expected to bring dry offshore winds to Northern and Central California.
As a result, it may need to call a second PSPS this week to reduce wildfire risk.
PG&E said it began sending two-day advance notifications on Tuesday to approximately 29,000 customers in small, targeted portions of 19 counties and four tribes who could be affected by this next PSPS, which could begin early Thursday.
An estimated 1,774 Lake County customers — 116 of them in the Medical Baseline program — are expected to be impacted in the next PSPS, which locally could begin between noon and 2 a.m. Thursday.
Those customers are located north of Clearlake Oaks, south and east of Lower Lake, and in the Cobb and Middletown areas.
Three community resource centers — where impacted residents can get water and snacks, charge medical and electronic equipment, and get updates on the outage — are planned for Lake County should the shut-off come to pass.
They will open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. during the outage, and will be located at the Live Oaks Senior Center, 12502 Foothill Blvd., Clearlake Oaks; Little Red Schoolhouse, 15780 Bottle Rock Road, Cobb; and Twin Pine Casino and Hotel, 22223 Highway 29, Middletown.
Information about PSPS events can be found here.
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