Pacific Gas and Electric, one of California’s top utilities, has been blamed for several runaway wildfires in recent years. Now, the utility has decided to shut off its transmission lines in markets affecting millions of Northern California residents, as hot, dry winds threaten a repeat of the catastrophic fires.
The New York Times has this report (see: “500,000 in California Are Without Electricity in Planned Shutdown,” by Thomas Fuller). “The state’s largest power utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, said it had cut power to 500,000 customers soon after midnight,” the Times reported. “A second round of cuts affecting 250,000 more customers in the hills surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area had been scheduled for noon but was delayed.”
“While PG&E said that hundreds of thousands of customers would lose power, an entire apartment building can be considered a single customer,” noted the Times. “Once the two phases are complete, around 2.5 million people will be without electricity, according to one estimate.”
Although the transmission lines posing the risk may run through remote mountain areas, the locations losing power include densely populated urban and suburban communities. Reports the San Francisco Chronicle, “PG&E began the much-delayed phase two of the power shut-off at around 11 p.m. Wednesday, de-energizing customers in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, including parts of big cities like Oakland and San Jose.” (See: “Second phase of blackouts puts tens of thousands more Bay Area residents in the dark,” by Amy Graff).
“In total, the shutdowns could ultimately affect 16 percent of the utility’s 5 million customers, across 34 counties,” reported the Sacramento Bee (see: “PG&E’s California power outage begins 2nd night as thousands restored, but more go dark,” by Tony Bizjak, Theresa Clift, and Sawsan Morrar).
“A big question remains unanswered: When will power be fully restored?” reported the Bee. “PG&E officials say they plan to move quickly when the National Weather Service lifts its high-wind red flag warning, which could occur in some areas by Thursday mid-day. But power cannot be restored until 45 helicopters and 6,000 ground crews inspect ‘every inch’ of the shut power lines to make sure they are in working order and not damaged.”
California officials are sharply critical of the bankrupt utility’s decision, according to press reports. Reports the Bee: “I’m outraged because it didn’t have to happen,” Governor Gavin Newsom told reporters at a news conference in San Diego. “They’re in bankruptcy due to their terrible management going back decades. They’ve created these conditions, it was unnecessary.” State legislators used words like “Third World” and “completely unacceptable” to describe the massive blackouts.
PG&E had warned of the possible outages for weeks. However, many residents were still caught unprepared. Reports the Bee: “Wednesday proved to be an unusual day. Residents of the Sierra Nevada foothills, whose electricity was turned off at midnight, lined up at daybreak at local Home Depots to buy generators, only to find out the stores had sold out the day before. Others searched in vain for an open gas station. Some went looking simply for a hot cup of coffee, driving through intersection after intersection of darkened signal lights.”
Thousands of customers in the affected area have rooftop solar panels on their homes. But for most, this is no help in a power outage: Most systems are “grid-tied,” meaning they only work in tandem with power from the street. However, some grid-tied systems also have battery backup, and can be configured to run independently when power from the utility is lost (see: “The Solar Power Island,” by Ted Cushman, JLC 2/18). Fast Company reports on one California homeowner who’s riding out the blackouts with just such a system (see: “To keep the lights on during California’s blackouts, people are using solar power,” by Adele Peters).
Reports Fast Company: “‘Between the solar and the batteries, we could go on indefinitely as long as there’s some sun,’ says architect Richard Schuh, who lives and works in the hills north of the town of Sonoma in an area without power. He and his wife now rely on a Tesla Powerwall connected to the solar panels on their roof. They decided to install the system after a major fire in 2017 blazed through their property, sparing their house but taking out power for three weeks.”
