California can expect blackouts for a decade, says PG&E CEO – Power outage in Fall 2019 could cost California economy more than $2 billion
By Richard Gonzales
18 October 2019
(NPR) – The CEO of Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. told California energy regulators that the state will likely see blackouts for another 10 years like the one imposed last week that left as many as 800,000 customers without power.
The revelation by corporation CEO Bill Johnson came Friday at a California Public Utilities Commission meeting at which he said his company is trying to reduce the chances of wildfires by trimming more trees and using technology to target smaller areas of the grid when fire dangers require power outages.
But Johnson said it could take 10 years before such outages are “really ratcheted down significantly.”
PG&E has come near universal criticism for its lack of planning in shutting off power and its failure to adequately handle customers’ questions while the outages lasted. PUC president Marybel Batjer blasted utility officials saying, “what we saw play out by PG&E last week cannot be repeated.”
During the blackouts, Johnson admitted that his company had not been prepared for the impact of the outages, including the crashing of the utility’s website and call centers being overwhelmed with customers’ concerns.
But Johnson still maintains that the outages, which the company calls Public Safety Power Shutoff events, were necessary to ensure safety in the face of seasonally high winds that can damage power lines and lead to wildfires.
“We recognize the hardship that the recent PSPS event caused for millions of people and want to continue working with all key shareholders to lessen this burden going forward,” Johnson wrote in a letter to the PUC prior to the hearing. “At the same time, we ask our customers, their families, and our local and state leaders to keep in mind that statistic that matters most: there were no catastrophic wildfires.” [more]
California Can Expect Blackouts For A Decade, Says PG&E CEO
PG&E power outage could cost the California economy more than $2 billion
By Pippa Stevens
10 October 2019
(CNBC) – The economic impact of PG&E’s preventative power cuts could be upward of $2 billion, according to some estimates.
The state’s largest utility company began cutting power for customers in Northern and Central California on Wednesday as a precautionary measure aimed at preventing the outbreak of wildfires. Amid peak fire season and forecasts of wind gusts of up to 45 mph this week, PG&E announced the planned cuts on Monday for as many as 800,000 customers, totaling about 2.7 million people.
The preventative measure — which forced some businesses and schools to close — could have big economic repercussions.
Michael Wara of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment estimated that the economic cost of the power shutdown could reach $2.5 billion.
“If one sums residential and small C&I [commercial and industrial] losses, the total is $2.5 billion in outage costs. If one assumes only residential customer impact, $65 million,” he said in a tweet on Tuesday. He arrived at his estimate using the “Interruption Cost Estimate Calculator” created by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Nexant, which compiles data on the estimated costs of power interruption. [more]
PG&E power outage could cost the California economy more than $2 billion
