PG&E warns of public safety power shutoffs that could cut electricity to tens of thousands in Bay Area

Pacific Gas & Electric warned Tuesday that it may cut power to tens of thousands of customers in a largescale safety operation intended to reduce wildfire risk.

In a press release the utility said the potential Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) could affect approximately 70,000 customers across twenty-nine counties, with the event beginning Wednesday evening and forecast to continue through Saturday afternoon. PG&E provided a mapped listing of affected areas that, in Alameda County, showed more than 4,700 homes could be blacked out.

The company said most of those homes are in the Berkeley Hills and that the online map included the entire UC Berkeley campus. Residents in the zones named by PG&E described the local geography and weather patterns officials say raise the fire danger.

Robin Beauchamp, a resident quoted in CBS News, said that when winds ‘‘turn around like that and blow the other way’’ hot air comes up from the valley; that pattern, residents say, increases local fire risk.

Another resident identified as Buchholz told CBS News he bought his home 12 years earlier, when wildfire was not as prominent a concern for neighbors, and cited the 2017 Wine Country fires as a turning point in local awareness.

PG&E framed the PSPS as a precaution tied to forecast conditions and an effort to limit ignition risk from power lines in fire-prone terrain; the company’s statement described the scope of customers and the projected timing.

Local institutions and households in the mapped areas face planned service interruptions that, according to the utility’s online tool, include residential blocks in steep, closely built neighborhoods in the Berkeley Hills and the UC Berkeley campus footprint.

CBS News reported the numbers and resident comments the company provided; separate headlines from SFGATE, NBC Bay Area, Yahoo and AOL also announced that thousands of Bay Area customers could lose power under PG&E’s plan.

The accounts in the available coverage focus on the scale of the potential outages, the geographic concentration in Alameda County’s Berkeley Hills, and resident concern about when and how long outages will occur.

PG&E’s public notice supplies the principal operational details: the estimated 70,000 customers across 29 counties and an initial Wednesday-evening start with a forecasted end on Saturday afternoon. For affected households and institutions the immediate questions are the timing and duration of the blackout and how the utility will notify customers as conditions evolve.

The utility’s mapping and the press release are the sources for the specific customer and county counts cited in reporting; resident remarks in CBS News reflect local perceptions of wind and wildfire risk that underpin the company’s decision to consider a PSPS.