NORTHERN CALIFORNIA — Pacific Gas and Electric said Thursday night that it had restored power to all of the 50,000 Northern California customers impacted by a public safety power shutoff this week, and also reported on the damage to equipment from the windstorm that prompted the shutoff.
The public safety power shutoff, or PSPS, began across 13 counties — including Lake — on Tuesday evening, with the all-clear called on Wednesday, when patrols for damaged equipment began.
In Lake County, approximately 4,563 customers, including 353 in the Medical Baseline program, were impacted in areas in and around Clearlake Oaks, Kelseyville, Cobb, Lower Lake, Riviera, Clearlake Highlands, Morgan Valley, Spring Valley and Hidden Valley Lake.
The company said wind gusts peaked at 56 miles per hour in the outage area.
PG&E said 1,300 ground patrol units and 33 helicopters inspected more than 3,200 miles of distribution and transmission lines for damage or hazards.That’s a distance greater than driving from San Francisco to Miami, Florida.
As of 5 p.m. Thursday, PG&E said preliminary data show at least 10 instances of weather-related damage and hazards in the PSPS-affected areas. Of those, at least four had the potential to cause wildfire ignitions if PG&E had not de-energized power lines.
Examples of those hazards include damaged equipment and vegetation and other debris on power lines. PG&E said more hazard and damage reports are being evaluated.
In areas where equipment was damaged by the windstorm, crews made repairs and then restored power to customers, the company said.
PG&E said it will submit a report to the California Public Utilities Commission detailing this PSPS event within 10 days of the restoration of the final customers.
PG&E restores power to all PSPS-impacted customers, reports on damage during windstorm
- Lake County News reports
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