PG&E may cut power in these California counties due to fire risk. What to know
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- PG&E warns of potential power shutoffs in 15 counties due to wildfire risk.
- High winds, low humidity and dry fuel conditions prompt emergency response.
- Utility equipment tied to past fires; undergrounding lines remains ongoing.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has placed more than a dozen California counties on notice for a possible public safety power shutoff as hot, dry conditions and gusty winds heighten wildfire concerns through Sunday.
Beginning as early as Thursday, so-called PSPS outages are possible in portions of 13 counties, PG&E said in a forecast update Wednesday morning.
Counties under the threat of deliberate outages are:
- Alameda: 647 customers, 31 Medical Baseline
- Colusa: 900 customers, 35 Medical Baseline
- Contra Costa: 276 customers, 14 Medical Baseline
- Fresno: 17 customers, no Medical Baseline
- Glenn: 578 customers, 20 Medical Baseline
- Merced: 55 customers, 1 Medical Baseline
- Monterey: 1,907 customers, 37 Medical Baseline
- San Benito: 239 customers, 8 Medical Baseline
- San Joaquin: 985 customers, 45 Medical Baseline
- San Luis Obispo: 496 customers, 19 Medical Baseline
- Santa Clara: 48 customers, no Medical Baseline
- Shasta: 2,940 customers, 228 Medical Baseline
- Stanislaus: 137 customers, 1 Medical Baseline
- Tehama: 298 customers, 15 Medical Baseline
- Trinity: 29 customers, 2 Medical Baseline
- Other: 1 customer
Most counties face the potential for shutoffs on Thursday; Colusa and Glenn counties will join the utility’s “likely” outage list on Friday, according to PG&E.
Winds gusting up to 50 mph are forecast for areas including the northwest Sacramento Valley and Salinas Valley foothills, while the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and interior regions are expected to remain dry with humidity dropping as low as 10%. PG&E forecasters said it has activated its Emergency Operations Center and is preparing for potential power shutoffs because of high fire risk.
“Tomorrow, winds will increase significantly, leading to elevated fire danger concerns,” PG&E said in its weather bulletin. “Winds will shift to the north on Saturday and Sunday in the Sacramento Valley with continued dry conditions and will need to be monitored for additional fire weather concerns.”
Details on how many ratepayers would be affected in each county were not immediately available.
Utility blamed for past wildfire events
PG&E in recent years has imposed planned power shutoffs in the face of dire wildfire weather. The utility company’s equipment has been blamed for sparking some of the worst fires in state history, including the 2018 Camp Fire. The fire killed 85 people and leveled the town of Paradise. In the aftermath, PG&E Corp. pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter, acknowledging its equipment sparked the blaze.
The utility since 2017 has been blamed for starting more than 30 wildfires, blazes that destroyed more than 23,000 homes and businesses and has killed more than 100 people. Since then, PG&E has been working to underground many electricity lines in fire-prone areas, which it says is the most effective way to reduce fire risk and is making California’s grid more resilient to climate change, leading to a notable reduction in wildfire ignitions this season.
Roughly 89,000 acres have burned in California this year across nearly 2,678 different wildfire incidents, according to Cal Fire, including the fires in Los Angeles that killed 30 people and destroyed more than 16,000 structures.
One of those blazes, the Eaton fire that broke out Jan. 7 above Altadena, remains under investigation as officials determine whether its power lines sparked the blaze. Southern California Edison, the operator of those lines, disclosed that power surges and a fault were recorded on several lines at the time of the fire, according to the Los Angeles Times, and company officials have acknowledged that electrical induction — a rare phenomenon — has emerged as a leading theory for how the fire started.
In recent years, PG&E has made significant efforts and spent billions to underground power lines in high fire-risk areas, but the strategy has drawn scrutiny for its cost and effectiveness.
The utility said the decisions on this round of PSPS outages are being made based on a combination of weather, fuel moisture and infrastructure conditions. Specific neighborhoods within the affected counties could lose power, even if the entire county is not disconnected.
PG&E said about 712 of its 788 power circuits in high fire-risk areas are currently operating with enhanced safety settings as of Wednesday. The remaining circuits, the utility said, were being monitored but were not yet configured for automatic shutoffs due to low fire potential index ratings.
Residents can visit PG&E’s website for updates, including interactive maps and address-level alerts. The utility was also expected to provide access to community resource centers offering restrooms, water and charging stations during any planned outages.
This story was originally published June 18, 2025 at 10:44 AM with the headline "PG&E may cut power in these California counties due to fire risk. What to know."
