The company said that the shut-offs were in response to a “significant, offshore wind event starting Sunday that is forecast to have the driest humidity levels and the strongest winds of the wildfire season thus far.”The company added that the weather was expected to subside Monday morning “for the majority of customers, and by Tuesday morning for the remainder.”On Monday morning, the National Weather Service in San Francisco issued red flag warnings, meaning that fire weather conditions were occurring or would be shortly, from Santa Rosa to Santa Cruz. The service said that winds would be strong enough “to down weakened trees and power lines.” The service added that “extreme caution should be taken to prevent new fire starts.”Pacific Gas & Electric, which emerged from bankruptcy in June after incurring an estimated $30 billion in wildfire liability, has increasingly used shut-offs to prevent its equipment from causing fires during extreme weather conditions.The utility expects to begin restoring power on Tuesday. PG&E, which provides electric and gas service to 16 million people in Northern and Central California, has used the “public safety power shut-offs” more broadly than other utilities in the state after it filed for bankruptcy in January 2019. Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric, the state’s two other investor-owned utilities, have taken a more surgical approach, with fewer power shut-offs.Earlier this month, PG&E reported to state regulators that its equipment might have been involved in the cause of the Zogg Fire, which killed four people, destroyed more than 200 homes and businesses and burned 56,338 acres. Last week, fire investigators announced that PG&E’s equipment had caused the 2019 Kincade Fire, which destroyed 374 buildings and burned more than 77,000 acres.Experts have linked the worsening fire season to climate change. Warming caused by emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases from burning of fossil fuels has led to warmer and drier conditions — making trees and brush more prone to burn.Ivan Penn contributed reporting.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/26/us/california-wildfires-pge-outages.html
