This Week’s Rotating Outages and Widespread Wildfires Underscore PG&E Needs to Be Able to Reach Customers in Emergencies

08/21/2020

PG&E Encourages Customers to Update Their Contact Information Ahead of Peak Wildfire Season

Updates Needed to Prepare for Emergencies, Natural Disasters, PSPS Events

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- After seven days filled with rotating power outage due energy supply issues and lightning-sparked wildfires grow across the state, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is urging customers to provide the company with updated mobile numbers, email addresses and other key information so the company can contact them with important safety alerts and updates during wildfire season.

Updating Customer Contact Information is Easy

Already this year, more than 1.2 million PG&E customers have updated their contact information. PG&E thanks customers who have already taken action to ensure they will receive its wildfire safety alerts. For customers who have not yet confirmed or updated their contact information, PG&E strongly encourages everyone to do so by visiting www.pge.com/mywildfirealerts or by calling the PG&E contact center at 1-866-743-6589.

It is important that all customer information is up to date so that PG&E can share wildfire safety alerts. This is especially critical for medical baseline customers. In addition to notifying customers directly, PG&E also will provide outage updates and information through channels such as social media, local news, radio and the pge.com website.

“We have already seen the result of a dry winter rain season and a hotter-than-average late summer in our service area coupled with lighting strikes. A number of wildfires are burning across the region, and we continue to encourage our customers to conserve energy as we reach the tail end of a week-long extreme heatwave that resulted in rotating outages on Friday (Aug. 14) and Saturday (Aug. 15),” said PG&E Chief Customer Officer, Senior Vice President Laurie Giammona. “We are asking our customers to be sure we have their latest contact information so that we can share important safety alerts and information about their electric service.”

Customer Preparedness Tips

Besides updating their contact information, PG&E encourages customers to do the following:

Have an emergency plan for wildfires and discuss it with your friends, family and neighbors
Check in with your elderly neighbors and friends who may have special needs.
Update or create a go bag or 72-hour kit that can be used if you need to evacuate
Prepare an emergency supply kit with food, water, flashlights, batteries and other critical supplies.
Customers concerned about pet safety during a PSPS should identify which kennels, shelters or veterinarians can care for pets during an emergency ahead of time
Clear defensible space around your home or business.

For additional preparedness tips, worksheets, checklists and other resources, visit PG&E’s Safety Action Center.

About PG&E

Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is one of the largest combined natural gas and electric energy companies in the United States. Based in San Francisco, with more than 23,000 employees, the company delivers some of the nation’s cleanest energy to nearly 16 million people in Northern and Central California. For more information, visit www.pge.com/ and www.pge.com/en/about/newsroom/index.page.