Contra Costa County is preparing to respond to the impacts of a confirmed PG&E power shutoff event affecting parts of the County. PG&E’s Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) is expected to start 10:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 26, through Monday, October 28 afternoon. According to PG&E, complete power restoration may take several days.
The County’s Emergency Operations Center plans a Level 2 Partial Activation starting at 6 p.m. on Saturday, October 26.
PG&E estimates that 48,000 customers in Contra Costa County could lose power. They expect the shutoff to impact over 120,000 residents in the County. The PG&E power shutoff event will affect large areas of the County, including Alamo, Antioch, Brentwood, Byron, Canyon, Clayton, Concord, Crockett, Danville, Diablo, El Cerrito, El Sobrante, Hercules, Kensington, Knightsen, Lafayette, Martinez, Moraga, Oakley, Orinda, Pinole, Pittsburg, Pleasant Hill, Port Costa, Richmond, Rodeo, San Pablo, San Ramon and Walnut Creek.
PG&E expects to start restoring power on Monday, October 28, in the afternoon with complete restoration possibly taking several days.
“We urge residents to prepare for this event. Our staff is diligently planning a response to the effects of this event,” said Board Chair, Supervisor, John Gioia. “We remind residents the decision to shut off and restore power has been planned and managed solely by PG&E.”
Contra Costa County is working to ensure that the public is aware of this PG&E power shutoff event. The County has also been working to ensure that they are ready with our operations and response to this PG&E power shutoff.
Click HERE to view a map of the expected area to be affected.
Thank you very much for the map. I was able to download it and zoom in for my home’s area. We were shut down last outage, but not – currently – for this one.
Maybe PG&E learned they should not purposely shut down a fire station (PH Con Fire #2 on Geary at Dorothy), only to have power on in WC right across Geary from Station #2.
They may have been fed off a different transmission/sub station line than you. Its not based on which side of the street you’re on.
I’m dead
I’m safe in my little corner of Walnut Creek
Tried telling everyone what this was all about, too bad you All would rather Attack instead of listening and educating yourselves.
CA used to have what were known as peaker generation plants to generate extra electricity during high demand periods. BUT those in charge of running CA decided they weren’t green enough. What they are mostly shutting down are high voltage transmission lines, meaning if they tried to keep everyone’s power on there’d be brown outs and eventually blackouts.
IF peaker plants still existed far fewer people wold have their power turned off. Thank liberal politicians for NOT having their fantasy electricity storage infrastructure, in place before eliminating peaker plants.
But lets be fair, don’t believe there is a single member of state legislature that’s a member of MENSA.
2017
‘ California regulators edge away from gas peaker plants ‘
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/california-regulators-edge-away-from-gas-peaker-plants/506358/
Politicians want batteries to store power, they evidently believe electricity can be efficiently “bottled” like water.
Wonder if a reporter really dug deep, they’d find campaign contributions from those profiting from the battery industry, from building to installing ? ? ?
Next election remember all the food in your freezer and refrigerator that went bad when you had no power for days.
The PSPS is meant to avert possible fire damage.
Original G, what is your point? Your comment is irrelevant. Peaker plants would have nothing to do with the intended PSPS purpose.
Stop pushing your agenda everywhere, you look silly.
OG,
Peaker plants still exist. They are privately owned and make most of their money on standby. California has stopped PGE from building more peaker plants, but private agencies can build them and sell the generated power to the Independent System Operator, and charge a fee for being ready to provide peak demand power as well.
I work on these quite a bit. I know of 3 in Contra Costa County.
These aren’t a solution to the PSPS problem though. The power they generate is still carried on the same old sparky infrastructure that is being shut down to teach the public not to sue PGE…I mean protect us from the hazards of electricity.
While we’re talking about liberal fantasies and things of that nature…I did some digging and discovered that all the heavy metals used for battery making (lithium nickel metal hydride etc.) come from the middle East. Afghanistan had the largest deposits of these metals in the world. Right before the conservative president invaded. And now we have a huge surplus and our entire society runs off of these batteries. Just like the opiates, we invaded Afghanistan and now we have to sell all the loot . So is it a liberal problem? Or is it OUR problem. No MENSA required
Doesn’t matter about how much generation there is. The problems are the lack of maintenance on the distribution and transmission systems.
You can have all the generation in the world – but if you don’t maintain the wires and poles, you won’t get $hit.
This is completely unnecessary, costly, and adds more risk to life and property than it mitigates. Concord has many high wind events each fall and zero loss of life or property. Our open field dry grass areas are plowed around homes. Zero risk.
Our representatives Glazer and Grayson need to get back to Sacramento and order PGE to stop this.
The residents of Paradise could have said the exact same thing last September.
That’s got to be one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard.
Zero risk, eh?
They have no clue
The map provided shows us in an area where the power will be shut off however the PG&E website shows our address as not being affected. So which is it? Once again I predict a big FAIL by PG&E on proper notification. Also of note is the fact that they state that up to 48,000 customers could lose power but the map I saw shows a very large area that I’m sure involves way more than 48,000 customers. I’ll add these shutoffs to my ever growing list of reasons to get the hell out of California. It’s a very long list.
you won’t know till all is said and done. Last round, I got the text alert that my power was out. It wasn’t, never was. Then I got the alert it was back on.
Ditto Mojo
Same here. This map shows my street will be effected, but entering my address on the PGE website says it will not be effected. Additionally, I signed up for texts for this address in the event of a Public Safety Power Shutoff. PGE said they would warn well in advance, and I have received no notification. I just got things put away from the last false alarm, so I’m going to wait until the power is actually shut off before I do anything. PGE Address Lookup Tool:
https://psps.ss.pge.com/
Already happening.
Don’t count on those pge maps. It shows I am in the area of no power, but when enter the address on their mapping system, it says I am not affected. If you need water or other stuff, do it NOW…
What I notice about the PG&E website is when I enter my address it says this address is not affected. I think they mean right now, in real time. It is not affected. There is no power outage right now. I don’t want to know about right now, I want to know about the future. Is my power going to be out in the future? If my power was out right now I wouldn’t need a map to tell me that my power is out.
This happened during the last outage when they kept saying my area was going to go out I kept checking and it kept saying not affected.
I’m not sure how you tell if a particular stree is impacted. I wa looking to see if my elderly mothers property is impacted. I see main streets but enough to tell where exactly her neighborhood is.
Try this link
https://psps.ss.pge.com/?_ga=2.255406798.777090921.1571973982-1385021018.1523046751
OliviaB … Found this while searching the web. Can put in zip code and it will zoom the map for you then you can hit plus arrow and drag map to where you need it. Is better map than static county one.
https://www.pge.com/mybusiness/customerservice/energystatus/outageblock/map/index.shtml
You can also sign up to be notified by phone or text alerts for a specific zip code that is not your address, but you have reason to be concerned about whether the power will be shut off there. Details and instructions on the PGE website here:
https://www.pge.com/en_US/safety/emergency-preparedness/natural-disaster/wildfires/psps-zip-codes.page
I went to the PG&E website that DRAKE STEPHEN posted and it says
“By providing a specific address you will get a more accurate view than the PSPS Map.
Again, failed PGandE equpiment. They are as bad as BART when it comes to fixing their system. Truly a criminal enterprise that outsourced its services to India judging from that idiot who is head of the wildfire program and probably stole all the money intended for maintenance..
Who can read the map? Certainly not me. If you are going to publish something make it readable. And also it took me about 10 tries to even get into the server with the map. Provide more bandwidth for your crises fiascos.
All I get is access denied.
Is it finally time YOU let your elected public servant know what you think of CA’s energy policy and perhaps they could explain how oversight of CA’s utility providers works?
These guys are not mind readers, share with them your input and ideas. An as Mr. Mayor says, “be kind to each other”.
Tim Grayson
2151 Salvio Street, Suite P
Concord, CA 94520
Tel: (925) 521-1511
Senator Steve Glazer
Orinda Office
51 Moraga Way, Suite 2
Orinda, CA 94563
Phone: (925) 258-1176
Senator Steve Glazer
East Contra Costa County Office
420 West Third Street
Antioch, CA 94509
Phone: (925) 754-1461
So, what specifically do you want us to say? Telling them that we’re outraged doesn’t contribute to solving the problem at hand. If you have a workable alternative please share with us and we’ll forward it to our reps.
PG&E shutdown map where you type in your address:
https://psps.ss.pge.com/
Enough already. It’s time to go ahead and make PG&E file for Chapter 7 and be done with them. Zero value their stock and take the company over. While I am no fan of more government, enough is enough. They keep filing for reorganization whenever it suits them. They are not bankrupt. If they are indeed bankrupt, than their debts are larger than their assets. They need to close up shop, sell their properties, trucks and all equipment and sell infrastructure to local communities. Hell, SF has been trying to give them 3 billion dollars for their infrastructure but they won’t sell. If they have no money, they should be jumping at the chance to sell and give that money to victims of their fires.
Bad idea Joe.
What happens when the government controlled electrical utility starts a fire? You are fooling yourself if you think that fires won’t happen under government control.
Imagine the added public pension liability? You know it will be subsidized with tax dollars. It will be a non-profit in the sense that it actually loses money. Another budget item to be funded. Another slush fund for the Dems to buy more votes.
Of course I could be wrong. The state does have success running some organizations like, BART, Cal Trans, the DMV, Public Education, and High Speed Rail just to name a few.
Cap PG&E’s liability and allow then to cut down trees and clear brush. Institute a reasonable forest program aimed at reducing fires.
Myself and a few neighbors were talking about this. Here’s what will happen: Some Johnny on the Spot new “Power for the People” power company will replace PG&E and they will have Billions to spend on infrastructure, all will be well for 5 – 7 years until the chickens come home to roost and Californians are paying 72 cents per kilowatt hour and 4.78 per therm. Think it can’t happen? Look at the Gasoline. And that’s assuming that the new company can make it without any fires.
This is just plain madness. Looks like they are going to shut the power off for John Muir Hospital also.
Dumb Ass Map.
How does this even help. My girlfriend had her power shut off for three days. Lost everything in freezer and fridge. Her husband lost his job the week before and doesn’t have extra money for a generator. She’s disabled. What are they supposed to do.
On the plan map there is a place you can enter your address. The notice says the address is more accurate than the map. According to the map my power would go off according to my address it will not go off.
So which part? The yellow or the gray will be shut off?
C’on folks this is simply payback for the lawsuits. Marginal bandwidth for their servers, cloogy info, address vs. outage map is just icing on the cake. Other states are laughing at us. What a joke, unfortunately it’s on us. Look either put up or shut up! Lip service from elected officials isn’t going to cut it. Time to flush out Gavin (Pelosi) and their kind from SF and Sacramento and reclaim our damn state.
100% with ya!!
Other states have been laughing at us for years. Nothing new
How long could these Public Safety Power Shutoffs continue ? ?
Just about two weeks ago newsom called them “needed”.
‘ PG&E CEO: Blackouts could last 10 years, but impact should ease ‘
https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/PG-E-CEO-California-should-consider-taking-over-14545613.php
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/10/californias_gavin_newsom_says_power_outages_are_needed.html
Feel like calling your elected member of the state legislature yet ? ? ?
So many people outraged by a company providing a service.
Many (most?) act like it’s your constitutional right to have electricity. (it’s not)
The double standards of hipocrisy. I love it.
Give me my handout, but nobody else should get one…
I can’t stop watching tv, or, commenting on claycord for a night, no matter how many people die in a “WILD” fire… sue pge, call your congressperson. RAWR!
MAGA! Who needs the environment?! Thank you trickle down oligarchy!
This has been a PSA. (did you make it to the end?)
We pay enough in taxes and other extraneous charges in California to not be equal to a third world country. Do not fault the consumer who is not at fault for years of mismanagement/lack of oversight at PG&E..
The EIGHTY FIVE people who died will NEVER watch TV or see their Grandchildren grow up. So tell us how do you measure a life, against maximizing of shareholder return ? ? ? ?
Dude, though it may not be a right to have electricity, if a company takes YOUR money and says it is going to provide a service then it should. Has nothing to do with a right. These blackouts are a result of neglect on this companies part. These blackouts are necessary but the fact that it got to this point is what is unacceptable. All preventable.
They’re already targets. Something I get to add to the list of worries that already accompany my husband’s job.
I am right on the border of the power outage zone and am not supposed to lose power, but I think I better prepare just in case my street is included after all. Sounds like a fun weekend ahead.
PG&E bringing Venezuela to you.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20191023-what-would-happen-in-an-apocalyptic-blackout
We can hope the weather reports are as usual and the predicted winds won’t happen.
I was able to go to PG&E’s website and look up my address. The map you provide is nice, but it was difficult to tell if my specific neighborhood was impacted since there are no street names listed other than main roads. Thank you again, though, for providing this information.
Am curious in terms of RE transactions for people that own homes in the flat lands (e.g. colony park, Clayton road area, downtown Concord, etc.)
When it comes time, sellers can disclose that their property is not usually subject to PG&E power shutoffs – wonder what that premium will turn out to be, if any…
Shots fired at PG&E workers in Colusa County.
Shots fired at PG&E workers in Glenn County.
Vandalism at the PG&E Oroville office.
Probably a lot more that I haven’t heard about….
They’re taking it out on the front line workers, when it’s the upper management controlling the budgets that should be held accountable.
It would be helpful if the “Click HERE” link indicated that the map is a pdf file.
It appears that that my house is right on the border of a blackout area but the resolution of the map is so low it’s impossible to tell. Guess I’ll just have to wait and see.
All this seems fishy, feds threatened to cut money,
explosive fires break out, customers can’t sue because
of BK, and judge rules to allow pg&e to pass cost to
consumers. We’re screwed!
Ridiculous but true. It’s not the workers that caused any of this. It’s the greedy management. In fact, I bet a lot of people that own PG&E stock are among those complaining.
Newsom worked himself into a frenzy, again, while addressing the press after visiting the Kincaid Fire. He gets wild-eyed with a crazed look on his face and rambles on needlessly, getting more and more excited as he speaks. Somehow his faux outrage is not convincing, however. It’s like he knows or thinks he knows what people want to hear, so he goes over the top giving it to them. I can just imagine him going home and asking his wife, “How’d I do honey?” I get the feeling he’s just acting the role of the Governor in a play where eventually he becomes the President … in his head anyway. Most insincere and unconvincing man I think I’ve ever seen in politics.
I agree with you 100%!
@Original G – while the https://www.pge.com/mybusiness/customerservice/energystatus/outageblock/map/index.shtml link initially looked like it would be useful I think it’s only for the rotating outages when the system is overloaded. It’s not showing any outages anywhere in California at present.
I agree though that getting reliable/accurate information is frustrating. For one elderly relative’s home the status notice at this moment is dated 10/24/2019 (yesterday) with no time and says the power may be shut off in the next 36 to 48 hours. Do I drive over and make sure they are safe? I have no idea.
Various PG&E pages say to go to https://www.pge.com/en_US/safety/emergency-preparedness/natural-disaster/wildfires/public-safety-event.page for the latest information. That page has does not Contra Costa county and yet spot checks of addresses in the county show that some may be affected by the upcoming PSPS events.
WC Resident … Thank You for info and for posting correct URL.
The map seems to be wildly overstating the area that will actually be shut off, if the address lookup tool is to trusted. I guess we’ll find out which was correct-the map or the address lookup soon enough.
Here’s a nice zoomable power shutoff map. https://cccgis.link/PSPSPublic
I suspect though that it’s not updated in real time and also see that it does not precisely follow the edges of the power distribution network.
https://www.contracosta.ca.gov/ has an alert at the top which links to this which links to the same map that the Claycord image at the top links to. Clearly the map is official but it is dated October 24, 2019 02:32 PM meaning it’s yesterday’s news about a rapidly changing event.
Gee, we have managed to re-create hippie life in the 60s, no tv and lots of weed and candles.
PG&E can go do one for all i care. #BoycottPGE
Another scam by the California government to get residents wishing for more government control. Recall Newsom. https://ranaf.org/