The California Public Utilities Commission’s independent consumer watchdog arm is recommending that Pacific Gas & Electric be fined nearly $166 million for the company’s failure to properly warn customers of a series of intentional power outages last fall. At their height, the so-called public safety power shut-offs of October 2019 left nearly 1 million PG&E customers across 38 counties without electricity, some for as long as a week. The power outages “disrupted the lives of hundreds of thousands of Californians and caused substantial economic damage,” the consumer watchdog office wrote. More recently, the utility shut off power to 361,000 customers as fierce Diablo winds blew through Northern California this week. AdvertisementSouthern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric have also used power shut-offs as a tool for limiting wildfire danger.

Source: Los Angeles Times October 31, 2020 02:37 UTC