PG&E Weekend Power Outages Planned On Peninsula

FOSTER CITY, CA — As many as 850,000 Pacific Gas and Electric Company customers could lose power this weekend — including approximately 65,000 in San Mateo County — in the latest public safety power shutoff triggered by fire weather conditions. However, it appears Foster City residents may be spared from the outages.

Forecasted high winds and dry air could be one of the most powerful wind events in Northern California in decades, according to PG&E, with widespread winds of up to 60 miles per hour and gusts reaching up to 70 miles per hour in higher elevations.

The expected shutoffs are expected to begin Saturday around 7 p.m. in San Mateo County. Customers in portions of 36 counties could lose power at some point, though the times vary by region, as seen in the below graphic.

"Power is expected to be off for more than 48 hours," the county of San Mateo said in an alert to residents. "Plan ahead."

All Bay Area counties except San Francisco are expected to experience outages over the next three days.

Residents can visit pgepspsmaps.com/addresslookup to check whether their address will be affected, and view PG&E's outage maps here, although the maps only show approximate information.

PG&E has been shutting off power proactively to prevent wildfires after utility lines started massively deadly and destructive fires over the last two years. PG&E has estimated that similar power shutoffs may be necessary for the next decade until the utility can upgrade its technology.

But despite a power shutoff in Sonoma County on Wednesday night, an investigation has begun into damaged PG&E equipment found near the origin of the Kincade fire, that's destroyed more than 20 homes.

Here's a map of the planned shutoff area around Foster City. (Again, the most accurate information can be found using PG&E's address lookup):