PG&E says six Bay Area counties should maintain power Wednesday

Six counties in and near the Bay Area previously expected to be affected by PG&E’s Public Safety Power Shutoff on Wednesday and Thursday now will not lose power unless weather conditions change, the utility said Tuesday afternoon.

Those counties are Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and San Mateo. PG&E said customers in those counties will be notified by text, email or automated phone calls to confirm they are not going to be affected.

The current proposed shutoff between Wednesday morning and mid-morning Thursday is currently expected to impact approximately 181,000 customers in 16 counties, including Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties.

The number of customers affected in those counties are 11,181 in Napa County, 1,970 in Solano County, and 38,376 in Sonoma County.

On Monday, PG&E began a 48-hour notification to 264,000 customers in 22 counties about a potential Public Safety Power Shutoff in response to expected high wind gusts that pose a risk of its electrical system igniting fires in dry vegetation. Those predictions at one point later increased to 303,000 customers in 25 counties.

The high winds are expected to subside mid-morning on Thursday but weather forecasts remain dynamic with significant variation across portions of PG&E’s service area, the utility said.

A Wednesday-Thursday shutoff would be the sixth Public Safety Power Shutoff this year, five of them since September.

PG&E said it will notify the potentially affected residents 24 and four hours prior to the shutoff. Customers who have provided their contact information to PG&E will be notified by phone, text and email.

PG&E said it will again open Community Resource Centers where restrooms, bottled water, electronic device charging and air conditioning will be provided for up to 100 people at each center. The locations will be available at pge.com/pspsupdates.

The resource centers also will provide snacks, ice, blankets and a heater, PG&E said.