PG&E could shut off your power on purpose amid fire hazards

San Jose Mercury News (CA)

June 12--PG&E has warned customers it may shut off power in areas imperiled by extreme fire hazards.

The embattled utility, which became a convicted felon in 2017 for crimes linked to a fatal explosion in San Bruno, is confronting the prospect of mounting liabilities arising from the deadly Wine Country wildfires last October in the North Bay. It has posted warnings on its website that it might "for public safety" reasons be obliged to shut off power from time to time in certain neighborhoods.

"It may be necessary for us to temporarily turn off electricity to neighborhoods or communities in high fire-threat areas when extreme fire danger conditions occur," PG&E stated on its website.

On June 8, state fire investigators determined that PG&E was involved in causing multiple fatal fires that were part of the devastating Wine Country infernos.

PG&E, which has been struggling to right itself since it caused a fatal pipeline explosion in San Bruno in 2010, now is deemed to bear a measure of responsibility for blazes in Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, Humboldt, Butte and Lake counties. That's because the company's equipment and facilities were involved in 12 of the fires, according to the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire.

Among the fires in which PG&E equipment -- mostly power lines that came into contact with trees -- was found to have played a role: the Atlas Fire in Napa County, which led to six fatalities; the Redwood Fire in Mendocino County, which caused nine deaths; and a merged set of fires in Sonoma and Napa counties that led to three fatalities, according to Cal Fire.

"We know how much our customers rely on reliable electric service and would only consider temporarily turning off power in the interest of safety, and as a last resort," PG&E stated on its website.

Pre-emptive power shutoffs wouldn't be unprecedented during times of high fire threats.

In December, alarmed by blazes that had begun to scorch huge stretches of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, San Diego Gas & Electric officials halted service to at least 12,000 customers in a push to reduce the chance of additional wildfires.

In some cases, Wall Street analysts have taken a sour view regarding PG&E's prospects in the face of a mounting set of challenges for the utility.

"PG&E was found to have violated state law yet again in Cal Fire's latest investigation," Shahriar Pourreza, an analyst with investment firm Guggenheim Securities, wrote in a research note this week.

In recent weeks, Cal Fire issued a report that stated PG&E bore a certain level of responsibility for some smaller blazes in Northern California. The most recent report was deemed to point to deeper woes for the utility.

"PG&E's equipment was again responsible for multiple fires in Northern California during the October 2017 wildfires, confirming our thoughts after the first report was released that it was likely a precursor of potentially more damaging results to come," Pourreza wrote in this week's research note.

Since the last trading day prior to the October 2017 fires, PG&E's shares have plunged 43 percent.

In recent years, judges have found that, under California law, it is not even necessary for a utility to be deemed negligent in order for it to be held financially liable for fire damage sparked by its equipment.

PG&E, in a quest led by its Chief Executive Officer Geisha Williams, has been attempting through efforts in legislative, regulatory and legal venues to upend inverse condemnation rules that now make it harder to pass the costs of wildfire liabilities along to customers in the form of higher monthly energy bills.

"We question whether the applicability of inverse condemnation even matters as PG&E has been found to allegedly violate state law in several fires thus far, placing responsibility squarely on PG&E for being negligent and/or imprudent operators," Pourreza wrote.

As it introduces new safety measures, San Francisco-based PG&E hopes to keep customers in the loop about a looming outage as much as possible.

"If we need to turn off power, we will attempt to contact customers in advance to ensure enough time to prepare," PG&E stated on the website. "We will also provide updates until power is restored."

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