Wildfire fears in California could lead to more power outages
The threat of wildfires might lead to more than 100,000 Californians losing power, this as PG&E Corp. looks to avoid issues stemming from last year’s lawsuit settlement for their role in devastating wild fires in 2018.
Nine northern California counties including Yuba, Sonoma and Napa could see their power supply cut by PG&E with wildfires a possibility. According to PG&E, “hot, dry and windy weather” is prompting the potential preemptive move, all done to prevent the start and spread of wildfires throughout the region. The decision to cut power could come by late Monday morning local time with the outages rolling through that night.
PG&E is wary in light of last fall when active power lines snapped sparking the Camp Fire, California’s deadliest and most destructive wildfire with 86 deaths and more than 153,000 acres destroyed.
All told, 124,000 consumers could be affected by any cut to power. Currently in California, the Walker Fire is the largest fire of the season with more than 54,000 acres burned as of this weekend.
Earlier this month, PG&E reached an “$11 billion settlement to resolve all such claims arising from the 2017 Northern California wildfires and 2018 Camp Fire.” On September 9, the utility company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection amid a reorganization to handle issues stemming from the lawsuits faced for its role in the wildfires.
In June, PG&E agreed to a settlement of $1 billion for its role in wildfires dating back to 2015.