Local officials are bracing for myriad effects from PG&E’s expanded power shut-off plan, which could lead to prolonged blackouts for thousands of Sonoma County residents in order to limit devastating wildfires.
After its equipment sparked numerous Northern California wildfires in 2017, PG&E broadened a fire-prevention effort now in effect to consider shutting down not only small power lines connected to homes, but larger transmission lines that carry electricity across Northern California to the utility’s nearly 5 million customers.
Executing temporary outages will be based on whether the weather is ripe for wildfire — hot, dry and windy conditions — as well as Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s real-time meteorological observations.
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Rolling Blackouts Could Protect You from Wildfires, But Are They Worth the Risk?
