PG&E plans safety shutoffs for Thursday
More than 40 customers in rural Solano County will be affected by the PSPS event.
(Graphic by Solano News Update)
The Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) is warning of a fresh round of power shutoffs that are likely to impact some customers later this week.
The utility is warning of the possibility of having to turn off electrical service to around 50,000 customers in Northern California as part of a wildfire-prevention strategy known as a planned safety power shutoff or PSPS.
Solano and Yolo counties are included in a list of 19 areas and tribal lands covered by this week’s possible PSPS event, PG&E said, though the number of customers affected by a possible round of shutoffs is expected to be significantly less than those who had their electrical service turned off during a similar event last week.
In Solano County, 49 customers are expected to be impacted by a round of shutoffs that could start early Thursday morning around 2 a.m., PG&E said. These customers live in rural Solano County far west of Fairfield along the Solano-Napa county line, according to a map published on the utility company’s website.
The affected customers include four “medical baseline customers,” PG&E said. These customers are identified by the utility as participating in an assistance program due to the need for electricity to power certain critical medical devices.
In nearby Yolo County, 11 customers could be affected by a planned power outage that is slated to start around the same time as outages in Solano County.
PG&E issues a PSPS event when meteorologists with the utility company predict weather conditions could lead to the rapid start and quick spread of wildfires. The strategy was put in place after aging and faulty PG&E equipment was blamed as the source of several deadly and destructive wildfires in recent years.
The utility company’s PSPS event bulletin is merely a warning for now and plans to shut off power to Yolo, Solano and several other counties could be scrapped altogether if weather conditions improve.
The issuance of the PSPS warning comes after forecasters with the National Weather Service in Sacramento issued a Red Flag Warning for late Monday evening through early Wednesday morning. Forecasters say wildfire weather conditions are expected to worsen later in the week.
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