California utilities are mulling power shutdowns as breezy dry conditions across the state raise the risk of wildfires.
Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. may turn off power to at least 11,543 customers in 15 counties, according to its website. Southern California Edison Co. is also considering cutting off electricity to 34,199 customers in seven counties, including Los Angeles County, the utility said on its website.
Hot, dry conditions through the San Joaquin Valley have elevated the threat of wildfires spreading there if any ignite, the U.S. Storm Prediction Center said Thursday. Across the larger region, there is a high-level, low-pressure trough across the Pacific Northwest that is raising the risk of dry winds, said Bryan Jackson, a forecaster with the US Weather Prediction Center.
Red flag fire warnings are up for parts of California’s Sierra Nevada range, as well as most of Nevada state and large parts of Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico. For most of California, conditions are elevated, but so far few red-flag warnings have been issued.
Over the last decade, power utilities in the western US as well as Hawaii have become frequent targets of lawsuits that blame their equipment for devastating fires. The flood of litigation has put those companies in financial peril. This has led to many of the companies, particularly those in California, to cut power during periods of critical fire risk to reduce the chances of its electrical lines sparking a catastrophic fire.
Top photo: Transmission towers alongside a Pacific Gas & Electric Co. substation in Crockett, California. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg.
Topics California
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