(Reuters) – San Francisco-based power provider PG&E Corp said on Friday it has started rotating power outages at the direction of California’s grid operator, impacting about 200,000 to 250,000 customers at a time, given the strain on the power grid during the statewide heatwave.
The company said in a statement it is not calling a public safety power shut-off, which is conducted during specific high fire threat conditions.
PG&E said its outages, directed by the California Independent System Operator, are expected to impact up to 250,000 customers at a time in rotations of one hour each.
PG&E will not be able to inform customers in advance of the shut-offs that could occur anywhere within the company’s service area, the statement said.
Last year, PG&E’s power shut-offs hit hundreds of thousands of homes and workplaces in northern California and were condemned by customers as well as authorities for being too widespread, with insufficient communication.
The company recently emerged from bankruptcy, marking an end to a long-drawn restructuring process which began after its equipment sparked some of the deadliest wildfires in California.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
