As part of its newly expanded Public Safety Power Shutoff program aimed at preventing wildfires, PG&E cut power to some 27,000 customers this past weekend.
It’s a good thing they did, said PG&E spokesman Paul Moreno. He said when crews went out and patrolled power lines, they found cases where weather interfered with the power lines. “We found tree branches tangled into high-voltage power lines, which were bare and had they been energized at the time, could've caused a situation," Moreno said. "We also found cases where customers' service lines... were also downed in that event… We avoided, obviously, a wildland fire in this situation."
PG&E warns customers that with its power shutoff plan, people can lose power for days.
In the case of the power outages this past weekend in Butte and Yuba counties, power was off for less than 24 hours. During that time, PG&E crews inspected 800 miles of power lines to ensure they were safe to reenergize.