More Than 16K Without Power In Napa County: PG&E Shutoff

NAPA COUNTY, CA — The lights are out again in parts of Napa County. At 7 a.m. Tuesday, PG&E began shutting off power to 16,820 customers in Napa County amid a red-flag warning through Wednesday afternoon for the North Bay.

"Another round of gusty offshore winds will combine with very low humidity to create critical fire weather conditions," according to the National Weather Service San Francisco Bay Area.

The shutoff is one of at least three endured by Napa County since Oct. 9, and comes as Calistoga residents remain evacuated from the Kincade Fire.

With St. Helena among the cities impacted by this latest shutoff, St. Helena Mayor Geoff Ellsworth in a statement Tuesday commended the community, saying residents have done an "excellent job in staying calm and focused during the ongoing PG&E Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) and the Kincade Fire in Sonoma County."

"We are closely monitoring the situation in Sonoma County, Napa County and the City of Calistoga as conditions may change," Ellsworth said. "Due to the proximity of the Kincade Fire, Calistoga continues to be subject to an advisory evacuation. However, there is no advisory evacuation for our residents at this time. The City will communicate any change in status for the City of St. Helena."

Other Napa County cities and communities affected by this latest PG&E public safety power shutoff include: American Canyon, Angwin, Calistoga, Deer Park, Napa, Pope Valley, Rutherford, Oakville and Yountville.

"The sole intent of a PSPS is to prevent a catastrophic wildfire sparked by electrical equipment during extreme weather events," PG&E officials said in a news release Tuesday.

"We know that winds generally above 45 mph are known to cause damage to the lower-voltage distribution system and winds above 50 mph are known to cause damage to higher-voltage transmission equipment."

As of 1 p.m. Tuesday, approximately 500,000 customers in Northern California were without electric service as a result of the shutoff. Approximately 597,000 customers total in Northern and Southern Sierra, North Bay, Bay Area, Santa Cruz mountains, North Coast and Kern County will ultimately be affected by the shutoff, according to PG&E.

"Approximately 400,000 customers who were originally impacted by the Oct. 26 PSPS event remain without service as part of the subsequent Oct. 29 event," PG&E officials said Tuesday. "The dynamic and changing weather conditions and high fire risk means that some customers who are currently out of power from the Oct. 26 event will remain out throughout the duration of the Oct. 29 event. PG&E continues to analyze this wind event and the extent of shutoffs."

REBATES

Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday that PG&E is going to credit customers for the outages related to the Public Safety Power Shutoffs.The governor made the statements at a news conference at 2:15 p.m. in Southern California.

"This is significant because utilities in the past have never credited customers for these disruptions," Newsom said. "We called for rebates and the CEO just communicated with our
staff that they are going to support some credits."

In a statement, PG&E President and CEO Bill Johnson said, "We have carefully considered the Governor's request to provide reimbursement for our customers impacted by the Oct. 9 PSPS, and we have agreed to move forward with a one-time bill credit for customers impacted by that event.

"This is not an industry standard practice, nor approved as part of a tariff, but we believe it is the right thing to do for our customers in this case, given the challenges with our website and call center communications," Johnson said.

In the Oct. 9 event, PG&E's website was frequently unavailable to people trying to find out if they were going to be affected by the PSPS and the call center was overwhelmed.

RELATED COVERAGE:

• PG&E Shutoff Begins In Napa County: 7,000 Lose Power
• Kincade Fire Live Updates: 90K Homes Threatened; 75K Acres Burned

— Bay City News Service contributed to this report.