PG&E scales back scope of potential power outage

Mike Zimmermann set out Tuesday to buy a generator to fortify his Rincon Valley home in the event PG&E shuts off his electricity Wednesday, in what would be the second time this month the utility pulls the plug on him and tens of thousands of other Sonoma County customers.

“I looked everywhere,” he said, and finally found a generator at Grainger Industrial Supply in Rohnert Park.

Should the utility’s preemptive blackout include him again, Zimmermann hopes his new backup power source will keep two refrigerators going, along with the pump in his treasured koi pond and a few lights in the house.

Bankrupt Pacific Gas & Electric Co., whose equipment sparked most of the deadly and destructive wildfires in Northern California in 2017 and 2018, intends to announce Wednesday morning whether it will cut off power to about 189,000 customers in 16 counties, including 27,824 in Sonoma County.

Those numbers are a reduction from the 200,000 customers, including 33,600 in Sonoma County, the utility cited Monday could be affected by the shutdown. The smaller potential blackout came after Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday said PG&E should “take steps to ensure that as few people as possible are impacted by any future (shutdown) decision.”

In a letter to Bill Johnson, PG&E’s CEO, Newsom also said the outage two weeks ago affecting 735,000 customers in Northern and Central California “was the direct result of decades of PG&E prioritizing profit over public safety, mismanagement, inadequate investment in fire safety and fire prevention measures and neglect of critical infrastructure.”

Johnson countered at a press conference Tuesday evening that preventing catastrophic wildfires is the “sole intent” of the utility’s power shut-off program. And he said company officials heard the criticism about its handling of the recent blackout and moved to make improvements.

“We’ve absorbed the feedback we’ve received ... and we’re working to incorporate as many of them as we can this week,” the CEO said.

PG&E officials would not commit Tuesday to a specific time it would make the shutdown decision Wednesday morning. However, if a blackout is warranted it would start at 3 p.m., two hours before the most dangerous winds begin in its service territory, said Mark Quinlan, a PG&E senior director for emergency preparedness and response.

Heightening the situation, the National Weather Service declared a red flag warning starting at noon Wednesday and continuing through Thursday at 4 p.m., with winds up to 60 mph expected over North Bay mountains.

The warning, which means critical fire weather conditions are expected, covers all of Sonoma, Napa and Marin counties, including the coast, valleys and higher elevations, meteorologist Ryan Walbrun said.

In the North Bay, winds on the coast and in the valleys are expected at 10 mph to 20 mph, with gusts up to 35 mph. In the mountains, winds are expected at 15 mph to 25 mph, gusts at 30 mph to 40 mph, and 60 mph over the highest peaks.

Even stronger winds are expected Saturday night into Sunday across the Bay Area, Walbrun said, noting that October is the heart of fire season — the month when both the Oakland hills fire of 1991 and the North Bay wildfires of 2017 erupted.

“Don’t let your guard down,” the meteorologist said.