Pinole Power Outage: PG&E Delays Shutoff

EAST BAY — PG&E's Public Safety Power Shutoff, or PSPS, has been delayed. The company told one East Bay city that the PSPS will now begin at 8 p.m. Wednesday.

Throughout PG&E's service area, nearly 800,000 customers are expected to have their power interrupted, according to the company. Already, the power has been cut to 500,000 customers.

The shutoff is expected to last through tomorrow, because of high winds that could combine with power lines to spark a wildfire. But once the high winds have calmed, it could take PG&E days to re-energize all power lines, as the public utility company has announced plans to inspect all power lines before putting them in use.

PG&E has opened community resource centers to provide access to restrooms, bottled water, electronic-device charging and air-conditioned. Here are East Bay locations, along with one in the South Bay, if you work in Silicon Valley:

• Merritt College LOT B – Leona St., Oakland 94508
• Bishop Ranch Parking Lot – 2600 Camino Ramon, San Ramon 94583
• Avaya Stadium 1123 Coleman Avenue, San Jose 95110

What could have served as an extra source of pain during the PSPS — the full closure of all bores of the Caldecott Tunnel — was averted when generators were installed overnight to keep fans and lights running. At least 181,000 commuters use the Caldecott Tunnel daily, according to Caltrans spokeswoman RocQuel Johnson. Those vehicles would have jammed onto other congested roads. Caltrans announced Tuesday evening that the tunnel would close because "The tunnels can't operate without power." Within hours, the generators were being installed.

The CHP posted this tip on social media, "Should traffic signals become non-operational, the California Vehicle Code requires motorists to treat those intersections as four-way stops."

BART is continuing to operate. BART officials said they have the ability to pull power from other sections of its traction power supply system to replace any power lost in the shutoff event.

"We understand the effects this event will have on our customers and appreciate the public's patience as we do what is necessary to keep our communities safe and reduce the risk of wildfire," said Michael Lewis, PG&E's senior vice president of Electric Operations, in a statement.

This is the PSPS map that PG&E provided on Tuesday, before the outages began:

This story will be updated as more information becomes available. Please refresh page for updates.

>>Related: Hundreds of Thousands Without Power In CA As PG&E Starts Power Shutdowns