PG&E Meteorology monitoring strong winds and dry vegetation conditions late Tuesday through Thursday, PG&E has notified customers who may be impacted
OAKLAND, Calif. — As of 7 p.m. on Sunday (Nov. 3), Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has called a Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) that may shut off power for safety to approximately 15,000 customers in 17 counties and 3 tribal areas, with first outages on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the earliest, if weather conditions do not improve.
PG&E meteorologists and operations professionals continue to monitor a potential wind event forecasted to enter parts of its service area late Tuesday through Thursday morning. Although recent precipitation has lowered fire potential, fuels are expected to dry out over the next couple of days under the dry and breezy conditions leading to elevated fire weather concerns when the stronger winds occur mid-week.
PG&E’s machine learning wind models are showing the potential for gusts greater than 50 mph over elevated terrain in the North and East Bay with windiest spots in the Geysers, Mt. St Helena, and Mt. Diablo reaching near or above 70 mph. With humidity dropping to 15-30% in windy areas, fire risk will increase under the strong and dry winds. The criteria for calling a PSPS event—low relative humidity, diminished moisture of vegetation and gusting wind conditions— are forecasted to be met on Tuesday night.
We recognize that Tuesday, November 5, is Election Day. PG&E has been working with state and local election officials for more than a month to prepare accordingly.
Although there are 7,000 Election Day polling locations in PG&E’s service area and 48 tabulation centers, just one polling location—Calpine Geothermal Visitor Center in Lake County—has so far been identified as in scope for the potential PSPS. The earliest that polling location could be impacted is Tuesday, November 5, at 9:30 p.m., which is after in-person voting has ended. PG&E is working to ensure backup generation is available at the Calpine Geothermal Visitor Center out of an abundance of caution. No tabulation centers are currently in the scope of the PSPS.
To prepare for any non-PSPS related power outages, we have staged extra crews and emergency materials throughout our service area. All vote tabulation centers have their own backup generation already in place.
Customers in the affected areas were notified Sunday night, November 3, via email, phone call or text to help them prepare for power outages. Visit PG&E’s Outage Center to see if your county or home address falls within the affected areas.
The company’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is currently open to support our customers and our operations teams during the PSPS.
To prepare for any non-PSPS related power outages during this weather event, PG&E has increased the number of on-duty crews and material supplies throughout our service area.
Potentially Affected Customers, Counties
Customers can look up their address online to find out if their location is being monitored for the potential safety shutoff at www.pge.com/pspsupdates.
The potential Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) event could affect approximately 15,000 customers in portions of the following counties:
| County | Estimated Customers Impacted | Estimated Medical Baseline Impacted |
| ALAMEDA | 449 | 26 |
| BUTTE | 292 | 27 |
| COLUSA | 604 | 29 |
| CONTRA COSTA | 940 | 57 |
| GLENN | 510 | 21 |
| KERN | 581 | 28 |
| LAKE | 1111 | 83 |
| MENDOCINO | 13 | 4 |
| NAPA | 3601 |
