This weekend's planned power outages could be the largest yet in California, as utilities such as Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison order wide blackouts to prevent more blazes - and more wildfire liability - amid heavy, hot winds.
PG&E, which has 5.4 million electric customers and provides power to 16 million Californians, was projecting Thursday that it could shut off power across nearly all of its territory in Northern California on Sunday and Monday because of ferocious gusts.
The bulk of the customers who could be left in the dark were in Ventura, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, with Orange, Riverside and Kern counties also facing additional time without power.
Although designed to protect the public, California's intentional power outages have outraged millions of people, including those subjected to fire evacuations and power outages simultaneously, as in Sonoma County on Thursday.
State leaders have blasted PG&E - which blacked out about 750,000 customers in Northern and Central California starting on Oct. 9 - for not being more selective with its power outages.
This weekend could swing wildly in the other direction, illustrating the unpredictability of weather conditions and electrical power decisions, both of which are out of the control of frustrated state politicians.
"This is unacceptable," said Newsom, who faces political risks from the continuing power outages.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-10-24/utility-power-outages-weekend-wind-california
PG&E, which has 5.4 million electric customers and provides power to 16 million Californians, was projecting Thursday that it could shut off power across nearly all of its territory in Northern California on Sunday and Monday because of ferocious gusts.
The bulk of the customers who could be left in the dark were in Ventura, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, with Orange, Riverside and Kern counties also facing additional time without power.
Although designed to protect the public, California's intentional power outages have outraged millions of people, including those subjected to fire evacuations and power outages simultaneously, as in Sonoma County on Thursday.
State leaders have blasted PG&E - which blacked out about 750,000 customers in Northern and Central California starting on Oct. 9 - for not being more selective with its power outages.
This weekend could swing wildly in the other direction, illustrating the unpredictability of weather conditions and electrical power decisions, both of which are out of the control of frustrated state politicians.
"This is unacceptable," said Newsom, who faces political risks from the continuing power outages.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-10-24/utility-power-outages-weekend-wind-california
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