'We Were Not Adequately Prepared': PG&E CEO

BAY AREA, CA — PG&E CEO Bill Johnson said during a Thursday press conference that the utility was "not adequately prepared" to support the Public Safety Power Shutoff, and he apologized to customers.

“We faced a choice between hardship on everyone or safety and we chose safety,” Johnson said. “And I do apologize for the hardship this has caused, but I think we made the right call on safety.

“Our website crashed several times," he continued. "Our maps are inconsistent and maybe incorrect. Our call centers were overloaded. To put it simply, we were not adequately prepared to support the operational event.”

More than half of customers impacted by the Public Safety Power Shutoff have had their power restored. As of Thursday night, about 426,000 out of a total 738,000 customers have been restored, including full restoration in Humboldt, Siskiyou and Trinity counties. About 312,000 customers remained without power.

PG&E initiated a PSPS on Wednesday due to hot, windy weather across its service area. Wind gusts in excess of 70 miles per hour were recorded Wednesday evening and into Thursday.

As the weather improved, an "all-clear" signal was given on Thursday afternoon indicating the weather had subsided to the point where safety inspections, repair and restoration efforts were able to begin in many areas.

Safety patrols and inspections were ongoing Friday. All customers will be restored once safety patrols, inspections and necessary repairs are complete, accoridng to PG&E.

As of 10 p.m. Thursday, PG&E had identified 11 instances of weather-related damage to its system in the PSPS-impacted areas, and the company is working to address these repairs.

During the period of the shutdown, customers in impacted areas will not be billed, and PG&E has paused disconnection and collection activities in these areas, the utility said.

Customers can visit pge.com/pspsupdates for more information.