Update: PG&E shut off power this morning, as previously announced. As of this evening, it had restored power in north Bay Area counties, and some of the affected Sierra foothill communities. SCE turned power back on for the Riverside County homes affected by Tuesday’s cuts. Public reaction to PG&E de-energisation moves remained as relatively muted as it did on Tuesday. The San Francisco Chronicle spoke to one upset Sonoma County supervisor, but on the whole there was very little NIMBY outrage.
Forecasts of high winds and hot temperatures this week led two of California’s major privately owned electric utilities to implement de-energisation plans that were drafted earlier this year. Californians’ acceptance of “public safety power shutoffs” as a necessary fire prevention tool appears to be growing, although we’ll find out today if residents of the more affluent communities of the north San Francisco Bay Area are as tolerant as people in the Sierra foothills.
PG&E announced that it is turning off power this morning to 48,000 customers in Butte, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sonoma and Yuba. That follows cut offs in Butte, Nevada and Yuba counties for 24,000 customers that began Monday evening. Restoration of service to the first group was supposed to be completed yesterday evening. As of last night, Southern California Edison had turned off power for a few dozen customers in Riverside County, and put a 140,000 more across the Southland on notice.
San Diego Gas and Electric customers are not affected, so far.
People who live in Sierra foothill communities have more directly personal memories of the horrific fire that killed 86 people and largely destroyed the town of Paradise in Butte County last year. So they might not be happy about losing power, but they did not seem to erupt in outrage as some Wine Country residents did last October. That’s progress.
The Sacramento Bee found one Butte County resident who was annoyed. She was interviewed at one of the “community resource centers” that PG&E set up, basically a big tent with air conditioning and plenty of outlets to charge phones. Judging by the video shot by Bee reporter Daniel Kim, few people were inconvenienced enough to make use of it.
That was the only kvetching that turned up in a Google news search as power was being restored yesterday afternoon, and only a relative handful of people took to Twitter to complain. PG&E is a particular punching bag on Twitter: the proactive power cuts didn’t add much to the vitriol that’s regularly directed at the company. But there’s a somewhat different group of people affected today. Stay tuned.