PG&E invites public to Wednesday virtual town hall to review wildfire safety

PG&E officials will describe the utility’s wildfire prevention plans, including intentional power shut-offs, and take questions from participants during a Wednesday virtual town hall session with free public access.

The event will focus on customers affected by PG&E’s preemptive power shut-offs this year, but any of the electricity customers from Bakersfield to Eureka are invited to join the event from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

PG&E officials will review wildfire prevention actions, improvements to its preemptive power shut-offs system and safety steps people can take this winter.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co., the state’s largest utility, filed reports to the California Public Utilities Commission on five power shut-offs in September and October that left more than 650,000 households and businesses in the dark.

The longest outage — from Oct. 25 to Oct. 28 — cut power to more than 345,000 homes and businesses, including 23,400 in Sonoma County.

During that event, PG&E weather stations recorded wind gusts up to 89 mph and utility crews subsequently found 126 incidents of damage and hazards that could have sparked a wildfire, the utility said in its report to the CPUC.

In a required progress report submitted to the state public utilities commission on Dec. 7, PG&E said it had made the preemptive shut-offs “smaller, shorter and smarter” this year. Improved techniques and strategies enabled PG&E to shut off about half as many customers this year as it would have in 2019, the report said.

State Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, said he is working with the commission and other lawmakers to ensure PG&E “makes the necessary upgrades to its system.”

“The scope and frequency of power shut-offs is still a significant issue of concern,” Dodd said. “While they are a tool to prevent catastrophic wildfire, they need to be minimized to the greatest extent possible.”

The session can be accessed online at https://bit.ly/2JWoDP3, by dialing 844-738-1853 or through PG&E’s website at pge.com/firesafetywebinars. The conference identification number is 9968387.

Closed captioning will be available in English, Spanish and Chinese.

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 707-521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @guykovner.