PG&E planned power shutoffs begin in the Bay Area

KTVU's Tom Bakar, who is live in Sonoma tonight. And Tom, we understand the homes in the hills above you could certainly be losing their power. Almost certainly going to be true. Now, new fire technologies and new utility technologies are actually reducing the size, the length, and the recovery time it takes to get back from a forced power outage. Like many fire-prone departments, the Sonoma Valley Fire District is ready for a wildfire in the rugged mountains above the likes of Sonoma and Glen Ellen on this wait-and-see night. PG&E announced potential shutoffs to 88,000 customers scattered across 29 counties, mostly in the highest elevations. Most of those areas are agricultural lands, so less populated areas, so we don't have to worry about evacuations. When PG&E started doing what they call public safety power shutoffs, they did them over vast areas, with many, many homes and businesses losing power. That's because they didn't have precise control of the grid. Now they have that precise control, and as a result, there are fewer shutoffs, they're farther between, and they're much smaller in size. I think this PSPS event, you know, years ago would have affected, you know, 20,000 customers. Now I think this one for all Sonoma County is only 2,000 customers. In the Bay Area, outages have already started. Our meteorologists continue to watch the weather condition, conditions on the ground, humidity, wind speeds. Right now, the prediction is we would be able to restore power early Saturday morning, if not sooner. If the conditions change and we don't have to shut off the power, we don't do that. In Glen Ellen, which has had many outages over the years, all of this is good news. The responses by the fire department, first of all, are like 200% better. They're stopping things right away. They have a good formula. I think PG&E has analyzed and put in measures at the best that they could, and so the big picture is safety. So I'm appreciative of all that they've done. Much better than having it shut off for days on end and you lose all your food in the freezer and whatnot. But yeah, shorter and controlled is a much better system. It's fortunate that they've lowered it to a lesser amount of people being involved and being affected. But I think I'm kind of disappointed with today's technology that we still have to live with shutdowns. Turning it off is the last resort. If we don't have to do it, we won't. Many of the folks living in those high elevation areas have been through it so many times now. Many have invested in generators and home batteries, very often powered by solar, so they can essentially be off the grid. Reporting live, Tom Bakar, KTVU Fox 2 News, Claudine, back to you. Yeah, certainly. Preparation and safety first. However, if you are stuck in the dark until Saturday, Saturday seems a long way off. All right, thank you, Tom.