PG&E, California’s largest electric utility has been facing a string of power shutoffs that have caused an immense damage to customers residing here. The Power Outage has been attributed to several conditions such as heavy rain, strong winds and an atmospheric river that have led to massive destruction on the lines of PG&E thus leading to the blackout.
Last storm was described at the most extreme weather event of the last 30 years with 1.4 million PG&E customers in Eureka, Bakersfield, and other parts of the company affected. The wreckage totaled the breaking or the downing of 728 poles, leading to more than 2,000 spans of power lines which had to be reconnected or fixed, and many broken or destroyed 357 crossarms and 237 transformers.
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The effect on the customers have really been very impressive with many of them being without electricity for long periods of time, which affects their access to heat, hot water, and other services that they need. More than 2,500 residents of West Sacramento lost their electricity after PG&E lost transformers to a failure.
The problem has become even worse with “surprise charges” randomly popping on customer bills on the day of power outages problems between PG&E and customers are constantly getting worse.
PG&E’s reaction to the problem has included to engage a convoy of 5,000 employees and contractors recovering the grid. The business created a list of customers whose service would be critical to restore (such as hospitals, telecommunications facilities), and the company has been working 24/7 to restore the power supply for everyone that has been affected.
As part of its proactive action plan, PG&E has been offering its customers safety tips and assistance, including how to use their medical devices during an outage, and the reason for staying away from power lines once they fall.
The intervention of the government has been very prominent in what follows the outages, especially the decision taken by Governor Gavin Newsom condemning the performance of PG&E. Newsom has attacked PG&E for its frequent outages and failures to fix its systems by promising that if made a governor, he would enforce these requirements and undertake its duties.
The state government has rushed to help all the residents and communities that have been affected by the outages. Particularly immediate efforts have been undertaken to counter the broader issue of wildfire prevention and power shutoffs.
