PG&E Restores 93% of Customers Impacted by October 23 Public Safety Power Shutoff Event

Once receiving the weather “all clear” decisions across the state, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) reported Thursday at 9 p.m. that it had restored approximately 93 percent of customers who had their power turned off for safety as part of a Public Safety Power Shutoff that began October 23.

Approximately 178,000 customers were originality impacted by this PSPS from the Sierra Foothills to the North Bay to San Mateo and Kern counties.

The company has restored nearly 165,000 customers in portions of 18 counties.

Safety patrols, inspections and power restoration took place throughout the day and continues through the night where it is safe to do so. More than 6,000 on-the-ground field personnel have been deployed and 42 helicopters are staged in the impacted areas.

There are less than 40 customers in Kern County who remain out of power and are part of an active PSPS outage. No weather all clear has been issued yet for Kern County. The weather all clear in Kern County is expected Friday midday.

PG&E expects all customers to be restored Friday pending any damage to equipment that must first be repaired before safely restoring power.

Current Restoration for Oct. 23 PSPS

Below is a table showing the progress of customer restoration by county.

Additional Widespread PSPS Potential for This Weekend

PG&E is also closely following a potentially strong, widespread, dry offshore wind event on Saturday that is significant in scope and could impact the Sierra Foothills, North Bay, Peninsula and Central Coast.

PG&E expects all customers impacted by Wednesday’s PSPS event to have their power restored prior to the second PSPS event over the weekend. Some customers who will be restored Thursday and Friday from this first event may also be included in this separate event this weekend. Customers should prepare by fully charging their communications, medical and other devices while the power remains on.

How Customers Can Prepare

In addition, PG&E is asking customers to:

• Update your contact information by calling 1-866-743-6589 during normal business hours. PG&E will use this information to alert customers through automated calls, texts, and emails, when possible, prior to, and during, a Public Safety Power Shutoff.
• Plan for medical needs like medications that require refrigeration or devices that need power.
• Identify backup charging methods for phones and keep hard copies of emergency numbers.
• Build or restock your emergency kit with flashlights, fresh batteries, first aid supplies and cash.
• Keep in mind family members who are elderly, younger children and pets.
• Learn more about wildfire risk and what to do before, during and after an emergency to keep your family safe at PG&E’s Safety Action Center.

While customers in high fire-threat areas are more likely to be affected by a Public Safety Power Shutoff event, any of PG&E's more than 5 million electric customers could have their power shut off because the energy system relies on power lines working together to provide electricity across cities, counties and regions.

Kincade Fire

Late last night, the Kincade fire broke out in the vicinity of Geyserville near the area currently shut off for safety. PG&E is working with authorities to gather additional information. There are currently approximately 5,200 customers without power in portions of Sonoma County, which was de-energized at approximately 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 23.

Today, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) filed an Electric Incident Report with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) related to the Kincade Fire. The information provided in this report is preliminary, and PG&E is continuing to investigate.

Customer Resources

PG&E has opened 28 Community Resource Centers on Wednesday in areas where power was shut off. These centers will remain open in impacted areas throughout the PSPS to provide water, phone charging stations, air-conditioned seating for up to 100 people and restrooms. To view the current list, click here.

During the PSPS, customers in impacted areas will not be billed, and PG&E has paused disconnection and collection activities in these areas.

Customers can visit pge.com/pspsupdates for more information.

About PG&E

Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is one of the largest combined natural gas and electric energy companies in the United States. Based in San Francisco, with more than 20,000 employees, the company delivers some of the nation’s cleanest energy to 16 million people in Northern and Central California. For more information, visit www.pge.com and www.pge.com/news.

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