How to resolve AdBlock issue? Clearlake City Manager Alan Flora updated the council at its meeting last Thursday regarding public safety power shutoff preparation as well as issues the city encountered earlier that week when it looked like Pacific Gas and Electric might cut power to thousands of Lake County residents.
Flora said the city was notified on Sunday, Sept. 22, of a possible public safety power shutoff that was to have happened on the evening of the following day. However, PG&E later announced that the shutoff wouldn’t impact Lake County, as Lake County News has reported.
“There were a number of serious communication issues between PG&E and local agencies,” which Flora said was very frustrating.
He said there were conflicts between information the company released publicly and the details available to the city through a secure online portal the company offered to local agencies.
Flora said that the communication did improve. However, “It was very difficult to plan some kind of response.”
PG&E media representative Deanna Contreras told Lake County News that with each public safety power shutoff the company identifies areas where they can improve in the future.
“We recognize the communications challenges that we encountered during the most recent PSPS event for informing customers and communities, and we are committed to getting better. In addition to live and automated notifications, PG&E held calls with city, county and state agencies two or three times every day to share the latest information and answer questions. Local representatives also kept in communication with their city and county contacts, and agency representatives came to PG&E’s Emergency Operations Center for further coordination,” she said.
Contreras said the company has heard feedback about communications issues, “and we take these concerns very seriously. We will continue to refine our efforts as we take this important action to keep customers and communities safe.”
She said PG&E will be having a series of meetings with emergency management representatives from affected counties in the coming days to gain additional feedback on how to improve.
Flora also told the council last week that PG&E appears to be working hard to minimize the scope and disruption of these shutoff events, but added that the feedback from local agencies is that, in some cases, PG&E was holding out so long in making decisions that it was difficult for agencies to plan.
“So we did luck out,” he said, as it had looked like Clearlake – and other parts of the south county – might have a shutoff event.
Flora said the city has signed an agreement with PG&E to operate the Clearlake senior center as a “community resource center.”
City Attorney Ryan Jones has said it would be preferable to have the council ratify that agreement at the next meeting, Flora said.
So far, the Clearlake senior center is the only designated community resource center for PG&E shutoffs in Lake County, Flora said.
Flora said that during a public safety power shutoff, the community resource center would provide water, information, electronic device charging and wifi capability from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. PG&E would staff the center exclusively and provide security.
As for city preparations in the event of a shutoff, Flora said the city has received all of the needed equipment and upgrades for facilities to operate, including more fuel tanks. All of the city’s traffic lights now have batteries and generator backups.
The city’s Web site has a public safety power shutoff section that includes resources such as businesses that will remain open in the event power is cut, Flora said.
There still are concerns that shutoffs could occur this fall and winter.
Flora said he was told that PG&E anticipates the likelihood of 12 of these power shutoffs happening in its service area before the end of the year.
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