PG&E turning off power to 850,000 customers, including 93,000 in Sonoma County this weekend in second outage this week

PG&E plans to shut off power Saturday to about 850,000 customers across California, including nearly 93,000 in Sonoma County, in its third and largest preemptive power outage this month after forecasters warned North Coast residents to brace for the strongest winds in years.

The blackout, intended to prevent the utility’s equipment from sparking fires amid winds that could reach up to 80 mph this weekend, will start around 5 p.m. in the North Bay and affect about 15% of the utility’s 5 ? million power customers from Eureka to Bakersfield.

Utility officials say the outages are necessary to protect public safety, but Gov. Gavin Newsom, state lawmakers and residents are growing increasingly exasperated with PG&E’s choice of a fire prevention strategy.

The 23,700-acre Kincade fire, still largely uncontained, erupted Wednesday night in north Sonoma County near a high-voltage PG&E transmission line that had not been deactivated during the last planned power outage. PG&E reported the line malfunctioned moments before the fire broke out, but investigators have not determined what role, if any, it played in the cause of the fire.

Newsom, who toured the fire zone Friday, renewed his scorn, accusing PG&E of “years and years of greed, years and years of mismanagement.” PG&E’s equipment sparked most of the deadly and destructive wildfires in Northern California in 2017 and 2018, prompting the company to declare bankruptcy.

Saturday’s shutoff is expected to start just 24 hours after PG&E restored power to nearly all of the 178,000 customers left in the dark since Wednesday. Some Sonoma County residents are losing patience following the repeated blackouts.

“I’m very stressed out. I’m not getting enough sleep,” said Priscilla Sporl, an Oakmont resident facing her third outage. “The fires make it even worse. But you know, what can I do?”

Kenwood resident Rosemarie Corrigan, also hit by the two previous blackouts, said living without electricity for days at a time is wearying her and her neighbors.

“If this is the new normal, I don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said. “You can’t ask this of people over and over again.”

At a news conference Friday at PG&E headquarters in San Francisco, Sumeet Singh, vice president of the wildfire safety program, said “we fully understand the impact and disruption” of the shut-offs.

Andy Vesey, PG&E’s CEO and president, said that a drought, wet winter and summer heat wave have left of California on the verge exploding into flames.

“These places we all love have effectively become tinderboxes,” he said.

All but about 1,000 of the nearly 28,000 Sonoma County customers whose electricity was turned off Wednesday had their power restored by 5 p.m. Friday, PG&E officials said, leaving them just a one-day gap between outages.

The utility expects to make the final decision on cutting off power at 8 a.m. Saturday.

About 300,000 residents in Sonoma County, or 60% of the population, are expected to lose power during the public safety power shutoff, said Sonoma County Supervisor James Gore.

“We’ve had small, large and now enormous (outages),” Gore said.

The outage may hit parts of 36 counties, ranging from Humboldt and Trinity counties up north to Monterey and Kern counties to the south, PG&E said.

Sonoma County will have the largest number of customers unplugged, about 92,900, followed by Marin with nearly 87,000. In Lake County, about 37,400 customers could lose power, joined by 12,700 in Mendocino County and 11,300 in Napa County.

PG&E said it will stagger the weekend shutoff times to fall several hours ahead of the hot, dry winds expected to sweep the state from north to south Saturday and Sunday. The vast majority of customers will lose power Saturday, while residents in the Bakersfield area are expected to be thrust into the dark Sunday.

Scott Strenfel, PG&E’s chief meteorologist, said northeast winds forecast between 45 mph and ?60 mph, with peak gusts of 65 to 80 mph in higher elevations, qualifies as a “high-risk event.”

The winds, combined with abnormally low humidity, have left California “bone dry,” he said.

“This is a serious situation we have in front of us,” Strenfel said.

The National Weather Service warned residents to prepare for strong winds that will begin around ?8 p.m. Saturday and not subside until 11 a.m. Monday. In the highest elevations of the North Bay, gusts could reach 75 to 80 mph Saturday night - which forecasters described as a potentially historic event - while winds in the lowlands will register 15 to 35 ? mph.

Most of the roughly 1,000 Sonoma County customers still without power Friday are in the Kincade fire area, which the utility’s crews cannot reach until Cal Fire declares it safe, said Mark Quinlan, PG&E’s senior director for emergency preparedness and response.

With crews conducting power grid inspections on the ground and in helicopters, PG&E restored 93 percent of customers in 11 hours after the “all clear” declaration ending this week’s outage, he said. Crews found seven instances of wind-related damage and hazards to its system in the shutoff area, including downed lines and trees hitting lines, each one a “potential fire ignition,” Quinlan said.

Customers should prepare for outages this weekend lasting 48 hours or more, officials said.

Healdsburg, which operates its own electrical system, plans to shut off power to about 200 customers in the Fitch Mountain area at 7 p.m. Saturday because of hazardous weather.

Staff Writer Chantelle Lee contributed to this report. You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 707-521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @guykovner.