Pacific Gas & Electric says inspections have found more than 100 places where its system was damaged by recent strong winds that prompted last week’s deliberate power cut to northern and central California.
PG&E says the damage included downed power lines and trees that hit lines. The utility says any one of those problems could potentially have sparked a wildfire – the issue that prompted the precautionary shutdown. It also says wind gusts hit 77 mph in Sonoma County and 50 mph or more in many other counties.
The shutdown that began last Wednesday lasted two days and affected an estimated 2.1 million people.
The disruption prompted anger and accusations that PG&E hadn’t done enough to weather-proof its system.
The Governor is asking P-G&E to pay the customers who lost power last week. Gavin Newsome sent a letter today asking PG&E to provide a bill credit or rebate worth $100 for residential customers and $250 for small businesses. P-G&E says they’ll ask the public for comment