PG&E Warns of Potential Second Planned California Blackout
22 October 2019 - 2:19PM
Dow Jones News
By Alejandro Lazo
SAN FRANCISCO -- Californians are facing a potential second
round of pre-emptive power outages, with the state's largest
utility working to prevent its equipment from sparking wildfires as
hot, gusty winds are forecast later this week.
PG&E Corp. said Monday it might cut electricity to parts of
16 counties in the Sierra Foothills and north of San Francisco.
About 200,000 households and businesses were notified that they
might lose power starting late Wednesday, the bankrupt utility
said.
At a press conference, PG&E Chief Executive Bill Johnson
said shutting off power to hundreds of thousands of customers again
might be necessary, given how much of its service area is
considered under high fire risk by state authorities.
"We are really dealing with a new reality here," Mr. Johnson
said. "It is certainly not a tool we like to use. It runs against
the grain of why most of us ever got into this business, and we do
understand it creates hardship and comes with its own potential
safety issues."
Earlier this month, California's largest utility cut power to
nearly 750,000 customers in a vast swath of the state from south of
San Francisco to the Oregon border, generating widespread criticism
from the public and politicians for poor communication before and
during the blackout.
On Monday, PG&E said it would work to insure any outages
would be less disruptive by coordinating better with local
governments and customers. Mr. Johnson defended the large power
cutoffs earlier this month as the right move.
"If you look at where the damage occurred on the system, it's
exactly in the areas where we turned off the power," he said.
The shut-offs are undertaken because hot, gusty conditions can
result in blown-over power lines and other hazards that can create
sparks that start fires, which can spread rapidly and be difficult
to contain.
Last week, Mr. Johnson said it could take up to 10 years for the
company to improve its electrical systems enough that pre-emptive
blackouts become largely unnecessary.
In recent years, PG&E's electrical systems have been found
responsible for numerous destructive California blazes including
the Camp Fire, which all but destroyed Paradise, Calif., killing 85
people and burning 95% of the town.
Write to Alejandro Lazo at alejandro.lazo@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 21, 2019 23:04 ET (03:04 GMT)
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