California Starting Another Mass Blackout to Avoid Wildfires

Parts of California will go dark Wednesday afternoon in a mass blackout that could eventually leave more than a million people without power.

PG&E Corp. will begin shutting off power to 179,000 homes and businesses in 17 northern and central California counties on Wednesday afternoon in an attempt to keep its power lines from sparking wildfires amid hot, dry winds. In Southern California, utilities are considering another 186,200 in cuts. In all, about a million people may be affected.

The threat of widespread shutoffs is hitting just two weeks after PG&E carried out the biggest planned blackout in California history, plunging about 2 million people into darkness, knocking out traffic lights and forcing businesses to shut across the Bay Area. The outages have ignited a debate over how far California and its utilities are willing to go to avoid catastrophic fires.

The threat of wildfires was listed as critical across the state Wednesday with dry winds set to “ramp up considerably,” according to the U.S. Storm Prediction Center. Thursday will be worse across Southern California where the risk is “extreme.” And while winds will likely die down this weekend, the situation could repeat itself next week, especially in Northern California.

This is a “total, California-wide wind event,” PG&E meteorologist Scott Strenfel said late Tuesday.

PG&E’s shutoffs start around 2 p.m. in the Sierra Foothills and will spread into other areas through early Thursday. The worst of the storm is expected to pass by noon Thursday, with gusts dying down in Kern County around noon on Friday.

The state’s largest power company has been taking more extreme measures to prevent fires since its equipment was identified as the cause of blazes that devastated California in 2017 and 2018, saddling the utility with an estimated $30 billion in liabilities and forcing it into bankruptcy. The Camp Fire in November 2018, which killed 86 people and destroyed an entire town, was sparked by one of PG&E’s power lines.

The looming shutoffs were already affecting businesses early Wednesday: Pipeline giant Kinder Morgan said it’s halting flows on a major fuel line between California and Nevada because of the cuts. The segment will restart when power returns, the Houston-based company said.

Once the storm is over, the utility will have to inspect and repair lines before restoring service. It has a goal of returning power to the vast majority of customers within 48 hours of the weather passing – potentially just in time for another wind storm to hit.

Early next week, winds are expected to restrengthen after a relatively mundane weekend as a new front rushes in, according to Bob Oravec, a senior branch forecaster at the U.S. Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

“The threat is going to be there,” Oravec said.

PG&E Chief Executive Officer Bill Johnson said late Tuesday that he didn’t want to get too far ahead “when we’ve got tomorrow to think about.”

The blackout threat has spurred a debate between California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the utility over who should make the call on shutoffs. In a letter to Newsom last week, PG&E Chief Executive Officer Bill Johnson said California should discuss the idea of a state agency deciding when to carry out widespread outages. Late Tuesday, Newsom shot down the idea, saying transferring control of the decision-making would be a “bailout” for PG&E.

The PG&E blackout that struck earlier this month drew outrage from residents and state officials who accused the utility of cutting service to more customers than necessary and failing to properly communicate its plans.