Power back on in Sonoma County after PG&E shut-off

PG&E has restored power to nearly all the customers in Sonoma County and the rest of California who were affected by its latest planned power shut-off, the utility said Thursday evening.

The utility cut power to about 50,000 electric customers in 10 counties, including about 5,900 in Sonoma County as of Wednesday night, to prevent wildfires Wednesday.

Shut-offs began around 7 a.m. Wednesday, and PG&E determined the weather was clear enough to begin inspecting lines around 2 a.m. Thursday.

The shut-off was the sixth affecting Sonoma County this year, though the latest planned outage is much smaller than those that hit the county in October.

The utility began implementing large-scale power shut-offs this year after Cal Fire investigators determined PG&E’s equipment was responsible for starting the majority of the large wildfires that burned in the state in 2017 and 2018. Last year’s Camp fire, the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in state history, was caused by PG&E equipment.

Despite the shut-offs, Cal Fire investigators are looking into whether PG&E’s equipment played a role in last month’s Kincade fire, the largest in Sonoma County history. That fire broke out in The Geysers geothermal field during a power shut-off. PG&E reported a malfunction on a transmission line that was not part of the shut-off moments before that fire began amid 60 mph winds, according to a filing with state regulators.

Regulators last week announced they were opening a formal investigation into whether investor-owned utilities such as PG&E “properly balanced the need to provide safe and reliable service” when planning and conducting recent blackouts.

You can reach Staff Writer Will Schmitt at 707-521-5207 or will.schmitt@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @wsreports.