PG&E restores 95-percent of customer outages after storms
–Overnight Thursday and through the day Friday, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) crews continued assessing winter storm damage, making repairs, and restoring electric service to customers in Northern and Central California. That work will continue until every customer has been restored.
Now, 95-percent of residences and businesses that lost power due to strong winds, heavy rains and deep snow earlier this week have had their power restored. Crews continue to focus on the areas where the largest number of customers remain without power, including locations in Mendocino, Calaveras, Tuolumne, Yolo, Amador, and Humboldt counties. In those locations and elsewhere, PG&E has found more than 1,500 instances of damaged infrastructure where equipment needs to be replaced or repaired, including 365 broken poles and 1,417 spans of wire.
As of Friday afternoon, approximately 42,000 customers are without power due to storm damage. Of those, approximately 10,000 customers are located where PG&E crews can’t gain access due to high snow, falling trees, and blocked roads. Where crews can access damaged equipment, they will continue to restore service to customers today, tonight and through the weekend.
Based on 30 years of weather data, PG&E meteorologists describe this week’s winter storm as the strongest since 2011 and say that it caused the highest two-day and three-day outage totals since 2010.
PG&E has been reaching out to every customer today who is still without power due to storm-related outages. This includes automated phone calls with updated information as well as through other channels. As crews complete damage assessments, customers will get updates providing their estimated time of restoration.
To support communities experiencing extended outages, PG&E has provided a variety of support including contributing $50,000 to the American Red Cross for storm relief, delivering blankets and water to customers in Yolo County, and providing 21 megawatts of temporary generation to keep critical facilities powered in four counties.
Since the storm arrived on Tuesday, Jan. 26, through Friday afternoon, crews have been able to restore power to approximately 818,000 customers (95%) out of the approximately 860,000 who lost it due to heavy wind, rain, and snow.
PG&E crews, as well as some contract and mutual-aid crews, are in the field, assessing conditions, making repairs, and restoring customers. Due to treacherous conditions and difficult terrain, these assessment activities are ongoing. Damage from wind, heavy rains and snow has caused access issues due to roads blocked by trees, debris, and snow In some locations, PG&E has been using helicopters, snowcats, and four-wheel-drive vehicles to gain access to infrastructure in the hardest-hit areas.
More than 450 crews plus another 500 or so troublemen and qualified electrical workers are engaged in assessment and restoration work. They are being supported by thousands of other employees who are staffing PG&E emergency-response centers, either virtually or in person.
Customers can find the latest information on outages on PG&E’s website. Visit PG&E’s Safety Action Center website for preparedness tips and more.
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