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- Written by: Lake County News reports
The town hall will take place from 7 to 8 p.m. Pacific Time.
It will be live-streamed on Thompson’s Facebook page.
District residents also can participate via Zoom. Interested participants must email Thompson’s office at
This will be the second virtual town hall of the 117th Congress and the 18nth in a series of virtual town halls since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
This is a general town hall, open to questions on all topics within Thompson’s jurisdiction as a Member of Congress.
All constituents of California’s Fifth Congressional District and members of the press are invited to join.
Thompson represents California’s Fifth Congressional District, which includes all or part of Contra Costa, Lake, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties.
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
A temporary microgrid is a grouping of electric lines and infrastructure that PG&E can quickly isolate, or island, from the larger electric grid.
Electricity can be safely provided to customers within the microgrid when the surrounding lines need to be turned off for safety.
Though each temporary microgrid will vary in size and capability, they all include devices that can disconnect the temporary microgrid from the larger electrical grid and a predetermined space and connection equipment for a backup generator.
Two of the Lake County sites, both located in Clearlake, were completed and made operationally ready in November. PG&E said it intends to upgrade these sites in 2021 to allow for faster and more stable connections of temporary generators.
These sites include the Clearlake North temporary microgrid in the parking lot of the PG&E Customer Service Office at 14730 Olympic Drive in Clearlake.
The site will keep the Clearlake Police station, Lake County Fire Protection District’s Station 70, a pharmacy, gas stations, restaurants, markets, dental offices and medical facilities, among other businesses, community services and residences energized during future PSPS events impacting the area.
The Clearlake North temporary microgrid energization area includes approximately 3,200 customers in the communities surrounding Old Highway 53, west of Highway 53.
The Clearlake South temporary microgrid in the parking lot of the Lake County Campus of Woodland College off of the Dam Road Extension will keep Adventist Health Clear Lake Hospital, the Lake County Superior Court’s Clearlake Division, the Lake County Campus of Woodland Community College, restaurants and markets.
The Clearlake South temporary microgrid energization area includes approximately 35 customers in the vicinity of the Dam Road Extension, south of 18th Avenue and east of Highway 53.
Two additional temporary microgrid sites, in Middletown and Lucerne, are currently under construction.
PG&E anticipates completing construction on these two microgrid sites in mid-2021, subject to weather conditions or other factors outside of PG&E’s control.
The Middletown temporary microgrid, located at 21095 Barnes St., will serve medical facilities, schools, banks, restaurants, markets and gas stations.
The Middletown temporary microgrid energization area includes approximately 400 PG&E customers centered around Main Street/Highway 175 and extending from Sacramento Avenue in the west to Jefferson and Douglas Street in the southeast, bounded by Putah Creek to the northwest.
The Lucerne temporary microgrid will be located at 6325 East Highway 20, at the site of the former Lucerne Clubhouse.
It will serve the nearby Lucerne Elementary School, markets, Cal Water, Lake County Special Districts and local businesses.
The Lucerne temporary microgrid energization area includes approximately 900 PG&E customers centered around Highway 20 – between Foothill Drive to the north and 16th Street to the south – and extending to Country Club Drive to the east.
All of the temporary microgrid sites in Lake County were identified and selected through an extensive process involving the analysis of prior and potential future PSPS events, along with community feedback, overall feasibility and other utility work in the region that could reduce PSPS impacts.
“The microgrids in Lake County are among the many sites being developed across PG&E’s service area in 2021 as a part of the company’s comprehensive actions to reduce wildfire risks across our system and minimize the impact of public safety outages on our customers and communities,” said Debbie Powell, interim head, Electric Operations for PG&E.
PG&E currently has six temporary microgrid generation sites ready to use during PSPS events throughout its service area, including both Clearlake sites. Nine additional sites, including those in Lucerne and Middletown, are currently in development.
While performing this critical safety work during the COVID-19 pandemic, PG&E expects crews to maintain proper social distancing recommendations and wear protective equipment when necessary to help safeguard the health and safety of themselves and the general public.
PG&E customers in the vicinity of the construction sites will receive an automated, courtesy phone call from PG&E notifying them of the work taking place.
Customers who are within the temporary microgrid energization areas will receive a separate communication from PG&E, notifying them of their inclusion in the microgrid and informing them of how it will operate during a PSPS event.
While PG&E intends to make every effort to operate these microgrids during a PSPS event, PG&E is not able to guarantee electricity to all customers potentially served by a temporary microgrid during all PSPS conditions or scenarios due to a variety of operational considerations, including hazardous conditions like an ongoing wildfire or weather conditions that could pose a fire risk if lines were energized, a large PSPS event or multiple emergencies happening simultaneously that requires prioritizing generation to critical locations first, and equipment damage or mechanical failure.
List of PG&E temporary microgrid sites
Angwin, Napa County: Operational
Calistoga, Napa County: Operational
Clearlake North, Lake County: Operational
Clearlake South, Lake County: Operational
Placerville, El Dorado County: Operational
Shingletown, Shasta County: Operational
Arnold, Calaveras County: In development
Colfax, Placer County: In development
Foresthill, Placer County: In development
Georgetown, El Dorado County: In development
Groveland, Tuolumne County: In development
Lucerne, Lake County: In development
Magalia, Butte County: In development
Middletown, Lake County: In development
Pollock Pines, El Dorado County: In development
Other PG&E wildfire resiliency efforts
In addition to deploying temporary microgrids, which are primarily designed to keep shared community services energized, PG&E has made a number of improvements to make PSPS events less impactful for customers, including:
– Sectionalizing and grid reconfiguration: Installing more than 600 additional sectionalizing devices in 2020 capable of re-directing power and limiting the size of outages. PG&E also analyzed its grid configuration to ensure as few customers as possible are impacted by future PSPS events.
– Substation microgrids: PG&E’s substation microgrid solution is intended to reduce the impact of transmission-level PSPS events, which is when PG&E must turn off power to higher-voltage transmission lines for safety. Transmission-level shutoffs generally impact a larger number of customers—some in areas that are not directly experiencing the severe weather conditions related to a PSPS event. More than sixty existing substations – including five within Lake County – are now prepared to use mobile generators when needed to help keep power on for safe-to-energize customers nearby. PG&E identified these substations as having a higher likelihood of experiencing future PSPS events based on historical weather data and past PSPS events.
Learn more about PG&E’s wildfire safety efforts by visiting www.pge.com/wildfiresafety.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – High winds overnight led to downed trees and power poles around Lake County and fanned small vegetation fires that firefighters were able to contain.
The heavy winds impacting the county started Monday night and by 2 a.m. Tuesday the National Weather Service had issued a wind advisory for Lake County.
The advisory remains in effect until 10 p.m. Tuesday above 1,500 feet in elevation, with northeast winds of between 20 and 30 miles per hour and gusts of up to 60 miles per hour in the forecast.
As winds increased late Monday night, power lines were reported down on Lakeshore Drive between Pomo Road and Huntingdon Avenue in Clearlake.
The Clearlake Police Department put out a Nixle alert at 11:12 p.m. saying that Lakeshore Drive was closed in both directions and to avoid the area.
On the Northshore, firefighters responded to a report of a residential structure fire on Widgeon Way in Clearlake Oaks just before midnight.
Radio traffic indicated that firefighters initially were challenged in getting water connections at the site, and that all of the home’s residents got out and were uninjured.
At 12:20 a.m., there was a report of lines down in the area of the 8500 block of Bottle Rock Road in Kelseyville.
Shortly after 12:45 a.m., a fire was reported on Stone Drive that was burning at least one vehicle and threatening structures.
Just after 1:30 a.m., there was a report of a tree into power lines at 2550 Soda Bay Road, and about 10 minutes later a call came in reporting smoke and flames in the hills behind Country Club Mobile Home Park in Lucerne.
Firefighters were able to access the fire just before 2:45 a.m. on the Jones Ranch in Lucerne, based on radio traffic. A battalion chief had been unable to reach it from Bartlett Springs Road due to large trees that had fallen and were blocking the road.
The fire could be seen from other parts of the town as the wind hit it, causing it to flare up over a ridge.
It was reported to be three-quarters of an acre, burning in brush.
Issues with downed poles continued into the early morning, as firefighters reported finding five utility poles down on Highland Springs Road in Lakeport just after 2 a.m., which led to a closure of that road at the intersection with Highway 29, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Highlands Springs Road was expected to reopen shortly before 4 a.m., the CHP reported.
Another report of a downed utility line came in just after 3 a.m. in the area of Spurr Street and Bryce Court in Lakeport.
Pacific Gas and Electric’s online outage map showed several small power outages in Lakeport and Kelseyville overnight.
One outage began at 10:38 p.m. and impacted 22 customers, while 90 more were without power as of 10:47 p.m. At 1:43 a.m. 305 more customers in Kelseyville lost power.
The company did not have estimated times of restoration as of 3 a.m. Tuesday.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The California Highway Patrol’s Clear Lake Area office said Juan Torres, 28, was arrested for driving under the influence during the Saturday afternoon crash that killed 19-year-old Athena Karan, also of Santa Rosa.
The CHP said that at 4:33 p.m. Torres was driving his 2019 Honda Talon off-highway vehicle, or OHV, in the Indian Valley Reservoir area.
Riding with him was I. Rubio Velasquez, 22, of Santa Rosa, who was in the right seat, with Karan seated on her lap, the CHP said.
Torres was traveling in an easterly direction within the reservoir when he went over a large dip in the roadway, causing him to lose control of the vehicle, according to the report.
The CHP said the OHV subsequently rolled over, ejecting Karan, who sustained major injuries when she hit the ground and subsequently succumbed to her injuries at the scene.
Officer Greg Buchholz arrived on scene and determined that Torres, who suffered minor injuries, was operating the OHV while under the influence of an alcoholic beverage, the CHP said. Torres subsequently was placed under arrest and booked into the Lake County Jail.
The CHP said Velasquez sustained minor injuries and was transported by ambulance to Sutter Lakeside Hospital.
Email Elizabeth Larson at