Despite the backlash, PG&E says power outage was ‘the right decision’

PG&E says it made “the right decision” to cut off power to over 738,000 Northern California customers last week, and that given the choice between hardship and safety, “we will always choose safety.”

The mass outage, dubbed a Public Safety Power Shutoff, was the utility’s attempt to avoid wildfires caused by winds damaging power equipment. 

G&E reported today that 25,000 miles of distribution lines and 2,500 miles of transmission lines were inspected after high winds (up to 77 mph in Sonoma County) subsided last Wednesday. 

More than 100 instances of damage were found during inspections, according to a statement from company spokesperson Deanna Contreras. “It is possible that any one of these instances could have been a potential source of ignition had a PSPS not been initiated,” she said. 

Customers, and politicians such as Gov. Newsom and State Senator Bill Dodd, have roundly denounced the shutoff, calling it drastic, dangerous and arbitrary. 

Newsom said the outage was “unacceptable,” and that PG&E had assured state agencies that it could handle a public safety shutoff event. Instead, said Dodd this week, “It was severely bungled, and it can’t be allowed to happen again. While public safety power shutoffs have a role to play, they cannot be executed in a cavalier or haphazard manner.”

But for PG&E, which has sole discretion to order such an outage, the unprecedented event “demonstrated that a safety shutoff can be effective in reducing the risk of wildfire in our service area,” according to Contreras.

“We understand the hardship and disruption this caused for our customers and the general public,” she said in today’s statement. “But given the devastating effect of wildfire on our customers and communities, we believe we made the right decision.”

PG&E said it is reviewing the event and its aftermath, “and seeking input from state and local agencies to scrutinize our performance and identify areas of improvement.”

 The utility is committed to doing better, Contreras said, “but given the choice between hardship and safety, we will always choose safety.”