AUBURN, Calif — Friday morning, officials from Pacific Gas and Electric Company [PG&E] held a press conference providing an update on when the nearly 36,000 customers in the Sierra still without power can expect restoration.
Since Dec. 25, PG&E has been able to restore power to nearly 350,000 customers across Northern California.
As PG&E deals with unpredictable wildfires in the summer, officials touched on how they were preparing for the storm after seeing forecasts that it could be impactful. Adam Wright, Chief Operating Officer for PG&E, said at the press conference there is work to be done in the future to tighten up the company's response.
"We sent out several communications to our customers and other partners on the steps we're taking, making arrangements to have our crews on stand by over the holiday...and we made sure, looking at our models, we had an excess of crews available from what we were predicting from our models," Adam Wright, Chief Operating Officer for PG&E, said. "I do think there's some lessons learned from this one that thinking about the extent of damage that we saw, I don't think our models picked up on that. So while we had 25% more crews, than we were anticipating, clearly it wasn't enough based on the damage we're being able to see now"
According to PG&E, in the immediate aftermath of the storm, crews worked hard to restore power to the facilities that provide critical services to the community, such as hospitals and other public safety facilities. As of Friday morning, power has been restored to all the hospitals impacted by outages.
Now, PG&E can work on restoring power to their residential and commercial customers. The electric company is working with Cal OES and Caltrans to restore power to residential customers as the heavy snowfall caused extensive damage.
Caltrans has instituted an emergency contract, starting Jan. 1, to remove the fallen trees and debris. PG&E has provided customers across Northern California with initial estimated times of restoration in order to help them plan and prepare for the next week.
PG&E's estimated times of restoration:
- Humboldt and Mendocino counties:
- 30% of the remaining customers by Sunday, Jan. 2
- All customers by Wednesday, Jan. 5.
- Southern Sierra Nevada mountain communities:
- 40% of the remaining customers by Sunday. Jan. 2
- All customers by Wednesday, Jan. 5.
- Sierra North-Valley division:
- 10% of the remaining customers by Sunday. Jan. 2
- 30% of customers by Wednesday, Jan. 5
- Following Jan. 5, PG&E will continue to assess the damage conditions to see when they will be able to fully restore power to all customers.
PG&E reminds customers that these estimated dates of restoration could fluctuate depending on location. These estimations also do not take into consideration the influx in resources PG&E is expecting over the weekend and into next week.
How PG&E is supporting their customers:
- Providing updates to customers by social media, text messages, and phone calls
- Partnering with the local Red Cross, food banks, and the city and county office of emergency services
- Opening several warming centers
- Setting up Community Resource Centers where those without power can charge their personal devices, utilize public Wi-Fi, and get snacks and water
List of Community Resource Centers PG&E has opened:
- Nevada City: Madelyn Helling Library
- Downieville: Downieville Community Hall
- Placerville: Pleasant Valley Community Hall
- Pollock Pines: Pollock Pines Community Center
- Somerset: Pioneer Park
Resources:
View PG&E's outage map for the latest update:
ABC10: Watch, Download, Read
Watch More: