PG&E Power Shut-Off Season Is Back

Image: @tumbao1949 via Unsplash

It’s the tail end of September, and you know what that means  — PG&E is shutting off power for thousands of California customers. About 14,000 customers in the East Bay lost their power on Sunday, and things will only get worse and more widespread on Monday, as the utility company says they’ll be cutting power in portions of 10 California counties. Shut-off season is officially on, and the threat of shut-offs is likely to continue through much of October. 

Without power? This PG&E outage map shows real-time shut-off zones in Northern California and expected Public Safety Power Shutoff outages. https://t.co/aeoSZx2Fu0

— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) September 20, 2021

Here in the Bay Area, today’s locally affected counties are expected to include Napa, Solano, and Sonoma Counties. But a current look at the PG&E Outage Map shows that a lot of Oakland is still without power. According to KGO’s Liz Kreutz, this was because “more than 50 power polls that were either sparking or on fire” Sunday.

Updated image with all current Red Flag Warnings across NorCal. #RedFlagWarning pic.twitter.com/bEJ5OCjcc1

— NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) September 19, 2021

And will ya look at how much of northern California is on a Red Flag Alert from the National Weather Service? They warn that remains “in effect today for the North/East Bay hills,” and probably will continue through Tuesday.

PG&E warned that power shutoffs are 'likely' as gusty, dry winds head for the region. https://t.co/7wIIzWqAn3

— SFGATE (@SFGate) September 19, 2021

And sure, it’s wildfire season, and those couple few drops of rain this weekend did not do much to halt that. But remember, PG&E is not shutting off power to limit wildfires, they’re shutting off power to limit their legal exposure because of their shoddy, outdated equipment’s role in the wildfires.

PG&E Says Its Equipment Possibly Linked to Smaller Wildfire That Merged With Dixie Fire https://t.co/UGcJaiCqoB pic.twitter.com/NsigGFWlPS

— Emergency Manager's Weekly Report (@emweeklyrpt) September 20, 2021

In addition to the PG&E Outage Map, you can also sign up for PG&E text alerts so they can notify you in advance when they’re going to yank your power over a Public Safety Power Shut-Off (PSPS). Those alerts are only available if you have the account number and the phone number listed for the account.