SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is readying for the most
rainfall since early April across Northern and Central California
starting Wednesday and continuing through the Thanksgiving weekend.
PG&E electric crews and vegetation contract crews are on alert for
potential outages and will be ready to respond to outages, and local
emergency operations centers will activate as needed.
The company’s storm response won’t affect PG&E’s continuing restoration
work in response to the Camp Fire in Butte County. As of Sunday, Nov.
18, more than 2,000 PG&E employees and contractors are doing gas and
electric restoration work and removing hazardous trees in the fire zone.
“PG&E has been preparing for storms such as this for many months. PG&E
has a plan, and we want to encourage our customers to have a plan as
well,” said Michael Lewis, PG&E’s vice president of electric
distribution operations.
PG&E’s meteorology department utilizes a storm outage prediction model
that is an effective tool to help the company respond to power outages
more efficiently. The tool utilizes data sources to provide estimates on
the potential timing, location and number of outages that we expect to
see during a storm event.
PG&E is utilizing technology to help us restore power more quickly and
efficiently after a storm. This includes the installation of automated
equipment that “self-heals” the grid as well as timely and accurate
outage data from our SmartMeter network.
These wet and windy conditions might cause trees, limbs and other debris
to fall into power lines, damage equipment and interrupt electric
service.
Heavy rainfall in areas impacted by the wildfires over the last several
years might produce risk of mud slides and debris flows. PG&E reminds
customers to heed all warnings from first-responders. PG&E
meteorologists and seismologists will be monitoring the weather forecast
closely and working with our Electric and Gas Operations team to
understand the risk during each storm event.
PG&E’s meteorologists forecast that rain showers will spread across
Northern and Central California on Wednesday with a stronger, wetter
storm moving in late on Thanksgiving day and into Friday. Current
forecast models suggest about two to four or more inches of widespread
precipitation across the elevated terrain of Northern California is
possible through Friday, which will decrease fire danger across the
territory.
Stay safe during an outage
Here are some tips for PG&E customers in case outages do occur:
-
Treat all downed power lines as if they are energized and extremely
dangerous. Keep yourself and others away from them. Call 911, and then
notify PG&E at 1-800-743-5000.
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During a power outage, use battery-operated flashlights instead of
candles due to the risk of fire. If you must use candles, keep them
away from drapes, lamp shades and small children and never leave them
unattended.
-
Unplug major appliances during a power outage to prevent possible
damage when the power is turned back on. Keep a light on to let you
know when power is restored.
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If you have a generator, inform PG&E and do not use it unless it is
installed safely and properly. If it is not, you risk damaging your
property and endangering yourself and PG&E line workers who may be
working on nearby power lines. Information on the safe installation of
generators can be found on our website at http://www.pge.com/generator.
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 20,000 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.
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Media Relations
415-973-5930
Source: Pacific Gas and Electric Company