PG&E Restores More Than Half of Customers Following Public Safety Power Shutoff

Pacific Gas and Electric Company reported late Thursday that more than half of customers impacted by the Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) have had their power restored. About 426,000 out of a total 738,000 customers have been restored, including full restoration in Humboldt, Siskiyou and Trinity counties. About 312,000 customers remain without power.

PG&E initiated a PSPS on Wednesday due to hot, windy weather across its service area. Wind gusts in excess of 70 miles per hour were recorded Wednesday evening and into Thursday.

As the weather has improved, an “all-clear” signal was given on Thursday afternoon indicating the weather had subsided to the point where safety inspections, repair and restoration efforts were able to begin in many areas.

Safety patrols and inspections, which can only take place during daylight hours, concluded at nightfall for today. Patrols will begin again at daybreak on Friday with more than 6,300 on-the-ground field personnel and 44 staged helicopters. Customers will be restored once safety patrols, inspections and necessary repairs are complete.

As of 10 p.m. Thursday, PG&E had identified 11 instances of weather-related damage to its system in the PSPS-impacted areas, and the company is working to address these repairs.

Areas where all-clear has not yet been declared include portions of Butte, Plumas and Yuba counties as well as Kern County, where a third phase of PSPS was implemented late Thursday morning impacting approximately 4,000 customers. The weather conditions in Kern County are expected to continue into early Friday.

Customer update

During the period of the PSPS, customers in impacted areas will not be billed, and PG&E has paused disconnection and collection activities in these areas.

Twenty-seven PG&E Community Resource Centers remain open throughout the service area to provide water, phone charging stations, air-conditioned seating and restrooms for customers. Over 3,300 customers utilized the centers on Thursday. To view the full list, click here.

Customers can visit pge.com/pspsupdates for more information.

About PG&E

Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is one of the largest combined natural gas and electric energy companies in the United States. Based in San Francisco, with more than 20,000 employees, the company delivers some of the nation’s cleanest energy to 16 million people in Northern and Central California. For more information, visit www.pge.com and www.pge.com/news.

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