CHICO — A total of 738,000 customers lost power Wednesday through Friday throughout Northern California as PG&E conducted mandatory shut-offs in response to a high risk of wildfires.

In Butte County, 29,907 customers lost power while 1,590 lost power in Glenn County.

Newsom stated in a letter he wrote to PG&E Chief Executive Officer William “Bill” Johnson that PG&E needs to provide rebates of $100 to residential customers and $250 to business customers.

“Californians should not pay the price for decades of PG&E’s greed and neglect,” Gov. Gavin Newson said Monday in disclosing the letter he wrote to PG&E’s top boss.

Once the windy, warm weather subsided, crews with PG&E patrolled power lines to check for damage and repair it. During the patrols, damaged equipment was discovered statewide in 50 places, said PG&E Public Information Officer Paul Moreno.

“We found 50 incidents of weather-caused damage that could have possibly caused a fire had the lines been energized,” Moreno said.

Moreno said the shut-offs are primarily weather-driven and that the company monitors forecasts to check for risks.

“We’ve received the Governor’s letter and appreciate its intent — to help make the state and all of us safer,” PG&E CEO Johnson said in a response via press release to Newsom’s letter. “First and most important, during the (public safety power shut-off), there were no catastrophic wildfires started. We welcome the review of our (public safety power shut-off) plan, practices and actions during the Oct. 9-13 shut-off. We executed this event in accordance with our Wildfire Mitigation Plan as approved by the California Public Utilities Commission, and under the guidelines of the CPUC’s De-energization Order Instituting Rulemaking.”

As of Monday, there are no more power shut-offs projected for the next seven days.

PG&E keeps a seven-day weather forecast on its website and issues warnings or watches should wind pick up. Along with the forecast is a map of California separated into regions that are colorized based on weather patterns. Related Articles PG&E: Butte County on power shut-off ‘watch’

1:30 p.m. UPDATE: Power still out in Butte County places, says PG&E

The company has divided the potential for shut-offs into four categories. When weather conditions do not come with high fire risk, they are labeled as “not expected.” The next level is “elevated” and is posted when some level of wind or dry conditions are being monitored by PG&E.

During a “watch,” PG&E activates its Emergency Operations Center and declares a high chance of power shut-offs due to dry or windy weather events. Lastly, a “warning” is given when the company is likely to begin outages and notifies the affected public.

According to PG&E’s website, conditions that could lead to a shut-off include low humidity levels, sustained winds and a red flag warning through the National Weather Service.

All the counties that underwent power shut-offs were completely restored by Saturday, said a press release issued Saturday by PG&E. The release said the damages included downed power lines as well as vegetation on power lines.

Moreno said the company will release a detailed report within two weeks of the shutoffs that will give a rundown of damages sustained to equipment during the shut-offs.