PG&E warns customers to prepare for more outages as storms bring damaging winds to region
PG&E has activated its Emergency Operations Center as well as regional and local storm rooms as forecasts call for a new round of storms that are expected to bring damaging winds along with heavy rainfall.
The EOC in Vacaville's central command monitors real-time grid conditions and outage data across PG&E's service territory, including the Bay Area.
"We probably have one or two storms like this every couple of years or so. This one is a little bit more unique, because we have two weather systems coming in over the next couple of days," said Rihaan Gangat, senior meteorologist for PG&E.
PG&E says wind is the main concern that can lead to outages, and it is warning customers to be prepared for them this week.
"We'll have one weather system producing many outages throughout the territory and then roughly 18 to 24 hours later, another weather system producing similar type outages," said Gangat.
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The EOC will be a 24-hour operation over the next few days, coordinating crews and resources across the Bay Area and beyond.
"This one potentially has impacts across the whole service territory," said PG&E spokesperson Denny Boyle. "So then our question is, do we have the crew capacity to respond, or do we need to ask for help?"
More than 5,500 PG&E workers and contractors will be on storm duty, including more than 1,500 gas and electric crew personnel. They'll be ready to repair damaged power lines, cap gas leaks, or any other issues that arise.
The utility is pre-positioning additional crews where storm impact is expected to be most severe.
"Both the crews in the field and the crew here are all going to be here through Christmas," said Boyle. "We'll be away from our families, but we're going to be doing what we need to do to get the power back for our communities."