New details concerning a potential public safety power shutoff by Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E). Parts of Kern County may go dark later this week depending on weather conditions. PG&E held a press conference Tuesday with several updates including what residents can expect.
When asked when power may go out for Kern County, a PG&E official said "the period of risk from a wind perspective is Thursday from 0:00 to 2:00, so about 2 a.m. We want to begin the shutoff portion or de-engerization, at about one in the morning. That gives us 60 minutes to do that."
According to the PG&E website, the shutoff set for Thursday morning would impact about 75 PG&E customers in Kern County, including people in Bakersfield, Arvin and Lebec. If the forecast holds final notifications would begin Wednesday morning. PG&E officials saying the total number of customers impacted across the state has improved because those windy conditions have gotten better.
"We now anticipate about 189,000 customers across 16 counties could be affected," said Mark Quinlan, Director of Wildfire Operations.
That number is lower than previous estimates. According to the latest updates the power would get shut off at 5 p.m. Wednesday for parts of the Sierra foothills, Napa and Sonoma counties.
The company says its website is ready to deal with heavy traffic and that it shouldn't crash as it did during the last outage.
Meanwhile, Stallion Springs Community Services District has notified the community that SoCal Edison has started to notify its customers that may also be impacted by a public safety power shutoff tomorrow as well.
According to officials, the PSPS could possibly happen earlier depending on real-time weather conditions.
Residents with critical life-sustaining equipment can go to the Stallion Springs Community Services District Building #2 off Stallion Springs Drive. However, the facility does not have qualified medical personnel to assist with the equipment and cannot provide transportation.
