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Tens of thousands of PG&E customers in the North Bay have been without power for more than 24 hours, as part of the utility’s effort to prevent wildfires. An estimated 500,000 people are without power across Northern California.
35,000 customers in Sonoma County and more than 10,000 in Napa County are affected. With about three people per PG&E “customer,” that means approximately 135,000 Bay Area residents have no electricity to power their AC’s, connect to the internet, keep their refrigerators working or even turn the lights on as thick smoke has blocked out much of the sunlight.
Winds have died down as of Wednesday, giving PG&E the all clear to begin restoring power. But residents are looking at another day without electricity as crews will first have to visually inspect an estimated 10,000 miles of transmission and distribution lines across Northern California. The fear is that wind may have knocked down power lines or blown trees onto the lines, which could spark fires if the lines are turned back on before repairs are made.
PG&E deployed a fleet of 60 helicopters and a fixed wind aircraft to conduct aerial patrols early Wednesday morning, but thick smoke and haze covering the region has forced the utility to ground its fleet, delaying some inspections. Crews are still working to inspect lines by ground.
The utility initially aimed to have power fully restored in Napa County by 7 p.m. and in Sonoma County by 9 p.m. Wednesday, but it is not yet clear to what extent the smoke may push that deadline back. Inspections can only be conducted during daylight hours.
These outages have become a regular part of fire season after the utility first instituted its “Public Safety Power Shutoffs” in 2018, but the company says it is working hard to make them less disruptive.
“Our objective from the 2019 PSPS season to the 2020 was to be able to reduce the impacts of public safety power shutoffs by about a third,” said PG&E Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response Mark Quinlan. “I can tell you with a high degree of confidence that we’re tracking at or better than that goal so far.”
Customers can find estimated restoration times and an outage map on PG&E's website.