Posted on July 15, 2019 at 6:07 pm by Peter Ibrahim
As part of its Community Wildfire Safety Program, PG&E is implementing additional precautionary safety measures to help reduce the risk of wildfires. If extreme fire danger conditions threaten a portion of the electric system serving our community, or the transmission lines that serve it, PG&E may find it necessary to turn off electricity in the interest of public safety. This is known as a public safety power shutoff (PSPS).
PG&E's PSPS program now includes all electric lines that pass through high fire-threat areas – both distribution and transmission.
While customers in high fire-threat areas (based on the CPUC High Fire-Threat District map) are more likely to be affected, a public safety power outage could affect any of the more than 5 million customers who receive electric service from PG&E. This is because the energy system relies on power lines working together to provide electricity across cities, counties and regions.
Once transmission lines are shut down it may take between 2 to 7 days for power to be restored. All residents need to be prepared for this possibility. Being prepared for any emergency is always important and a public safety power shutoff is one more reason to be prepared. So let’s get prepared now!
How to prepare for a public safety power shutoff
Additional resources
