PG&E to shut off power to hundreds of SLO County residents due to fire risk
PG&E is preparing to shut off power to hundreds of residents across San Luis Obispo County this week, as the risk of a devastating wildfire increases amid dry and windy conditions across the Central Coast.
PG&E says it could shut off power to around 1,563 customers on Thursday if the weather conditions are such that the risk of fire is high.
Already, the wind-driven Alisal Fire has burned 6,000 acres in Santa Barbara County after sparking Monday afternoon.
PG&E spokesman Mark Mesesan said the company is “carefully monitoring another weather system that may bring in strong winds on Thursday.”
“Our meteorology team is carefully tracking the weather,” he wrote in an email to The Tribune. “When deciding if the power needs to be turned off to help prevent wildfires, we carefully examine a combination of factors.”
The Public Safety Power Shutoff could impact residents across San Luis Obispo County, according to PG&E’s outage forecast map — with a shutoff possible mostly in the county’s interior.
To check if your home or business could lose power, visit PG&E’s outage map and enter your address at pgealerts.alerts.pge.com/outages/map.
According to PG&E, about 44 of those customers that could potentially lose power would be medical baseline customers, or those in an assistance program who require electricity for certain medical and independent living needs.
The company says resources are available to elderly and disabled customers who might be impacted by a PSPS. Those free resources include medical, shelter, food and other support and can be accessed by calling 211 or texting “PSPS” to 211211.
This would be the second PSPS in SLO County this week.
PG&E already shut off power to about 150 customers on Monday due to the high winds impacting the area.
Those customers have yet to have their power restored as of Tuesday morning. The company was expecting to restore their electricity Tuesday afternoon.
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