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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Less than two weeks after Lake County was included in a regionwide public safety power shutoff conducted by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. in response to a weather event, the company said Monday that another shutoff could take place this week that would impact portions of Lake County.
PG&E said it is considering activating the public safety power shutoff, or PSPS, beginning at about noon on Wednesday in response to a potentially strong, hot and dry offshore wind event Wednesday and Thursday.
The main period of weather risk is forecast to last about 18 to 24 hours, from Wednesday evening through mid-day Thursday. PG&E said the dry, windy weather pattern is expected to unfold across the Northern Sierra, Sacramento Valley and the North Bay.
While PG&E has not yet officially called a public safety power shutoff, company spokeswoman Deanna Contreras said it is monitoring a potential shutoff area that includes Lake and 14 other counties: Amador, Butte, Calaveras, El Dorado, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, San Mateo, Sierra, Sonoma, Sutter and Yuba.
Those areas have been placed under a “PSPS Watch,” indicating that there is a “reasonable chance of executing a PSPS to reduce public safety risk in a given geographic zone due to a combination of adverse weather and dry fuel conditions,” the company reported.
“We expect the potential PSPS may affect up to 209,000 customers across the 15 counties,” Contreras told Lake County News.
That’s compared to the more than 735,000 customer accounts – and more than two million Californians – in 35 counties officials said were impacted two weeks ago.
In the previous event, more than 37,400 Lake County customer accounts – or, all of Lake County – were impacted.
However, Sheriff Brian Martin said Monday that this time it appears about 2,000 customer accounts will be impacted.
On Monday afternoon, the Lakeport Police Department reported that PG&E had told city officials that the city of Lakeport is not anticipated to be included in the outage area.
Like Martin, the city also reported that it had received information that the impact would be limited to about 2,000 customers.
A PG&E outage map that the city of Lakeport provided Monday afternoon – at which point it wasn’t posted on the PG&E Web site – showed that the proposed shutoff areas are in the south county around Cobb and Middletown, and one small area north of Upper Lake along Highway 20 at the Lake-Mendocino County border.
Clearlake City Manager Alan Flora also told Lake County News Monday afternoon that there is not expected to be any impact to the city of Clearlake, with Cobb and Middletown the main focus.
The company said it activated its emergency operations center in San Francisco at 6 p.m. Sunday to monitor the wind event.
Contreras said the company continues to suggest that customers prepare for outages that could last longer than 48 hours.
PG&E said it will provide updates several times a day in the lead up to the potential shutoff.
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