Power Outage Impacting Southern Humboldt PG&E Customers

Just after sunrise this morning, the power went out for 1,848 PG&E customers in Southern Humboldt, according to the PG&E Outage Map.

The outage map shows power outage impacting customers west of Redway, north to Petrolia, south to Sinkyone, and a few customers just to the north of Redway, and in Phillipsville.

The outage was reported at 6:25 a.m., prompting a response from PG&E crews to inspect and repair the issue. According to the outage map, PG&E has not issued a cause for the power outage but has estimated power restoration to take place at 3:15 p.m. later today.

However, in a phone interview with PG&E spokesperson, Megan McFarland at 10 a.m., power had been restored to around 1000 customers, with 836 customers still experiencing an outage.

In a follow-up email, McFarland wrote, “The cause is currently under investigation and we are patrolling the impacted line. This outage is occuring on a line where PG&E’s Enhanced Powerline Safety Settings (EPSS) are activated.”

PG&E recently activated EPSS in areas of high fire risk. The setting allows the powerlines to deenergize automatically to prevent ignition from hazardous items striking the lines, such as a fallen branch.

The PG&E spokesperson explained, “These settings are in high fire-risk and surrounding areas, such as parts of Humboldt County. In 2022, there was a 68% reduction in ignitions on EPSS-enabled powerlines.”

In order to restore power, the lines must be patrolled by PG&E crews to ensure the hazard is no longer present and the lines are undamaged.

“PG&E will use helicopters, when possible, to conduct aerial patrols.  Extra crews will be brought in when ground patrols are needed so the patrol can be done safely and as quickly as possible to restore service to our customers,” McFarland stated.