New PGE Safety Pgm Knocks Out Power To Thousands

The first large outage in Nevada County from a new PG and E wildfire safety program knocked out electricity to nearly 35-hunded customers in the Nevada City area on Tuesday. That also closed the county courthouse and disrupted streaming capabilities for the Board of Supervisors meeting. Around three-thousand customers had their lights back on about three and a half hours later, with all but 29 back over six hours after being shut off. Utility Spokesperson Paul Moreno says it’s the first year most of the county has been included with their so-called Enhanced Powerline Safety Settings program. Last year, it was a much more limited pilot program. That means powerlines can now be turned off in one-tenth of a second, if a wildfire threat is detected…

click to listen to Paul Moreno

Moreno says this outage is blamed on equipment failure. But he says customers could be hit by more outages, under this program, compared to Public Safety Power Shutoffs…