Understanding maintenance outages

PG&E must sometimes interrupt electric services temporarily to maintain the electric systems that serve. This maintenance helps keep your lights on and enables us to provide safe and reliable service.

If you received an alert about an upcoming planned electric maintenance power outage, it is important to note the following:

• Landlords or property owner with tenant(s): If any tenant receives electric service through a common meter and the PG&E bill is in your name, it is your responsibility to notify the tenant(s).
• Homeowner’s Association or property management company: The notice you receive is to alert you of the planned outage that will impact one or more of your meters. All affected PG&E customers living in the vicinity of this planned outage will receive a separate notice.
• Customers: Cancellation of work at the last minute without notice to you can occur. This would only happen due to unsafe weather conditions or an unforeseen emergency. In such an event, your planned outage would be rescheduled and a new notice will be provided to you at a later date.

GENERATOR NOTICE: Unless installed by a licensed electrician, standby or portable generators should not be connected to your electric service panel. This is to ensure that electricity from your generator does not accidentally “backfeed” to energize PG&E’s power lines and injure utility employees. For more information, call us or visit www.pge.com/generator.

FAILURE TO INSTALL A STANDBY GENERATOR SAFELY AND PROPERLY COULD ENDANGER UTILITY EMPLOYEES, THE PUBLIC, YOU AND YOUR PROPERTY.

Prepare for a planned outage

Here are a few recommendations to help minimize any inconvenience to you during an electric power outage:

• If you rely on life support devices, consider the following:
  • Install an Uninterruptible Power Supply on the necessary life support equipment
  • Obtain small portable oxygen tanks as back-ups
  • Find alternate shelter at a location not affected by the electric power outage.
• Water: If your water supply is provided from a pump, you will likely not be able to access the water during the electric power outage. You may want to have bottled water available.
• Computers and other electronic equipment are sensitive to electric power outages. We recommend unplugging this equipment before the outage starts. Consider installing a surge protector on sensitive equipment.
• Keep your cell phone battery charged. Cordless phones will not operate during an electric power outage.
• Automatic garage doors require electricity. It is recommended you remove your vehicle before the electric power outage starts.
• Security systems, clocks, irrigation timers and similar equipment will likely require resetting after the electric power outage is over and your power is restored.
• Have a battery-powered flashlight with fresh batteries available.
• Food Safety: During any electric power outage, keep the doors of your refrigerator and freezer closed to help keep food fresh. The U.S. Department of Agriculture states that your freezer should keep food frozen for at least 24 hours, and that refrigerated food should stay safe for up to four hours. If the electric power outage is expected to last longer, you should take additional measures now to prepare. This includes filling a few empty liter-size plastic bottles with water and freeing them, putting them into the refrigerator the day of the outage to keep food cool. As always, before you prepare or eat food that was refrigerated or frozen, check it carefully for signs of spoilage. More information can be found at fsis.usda.gov.

Although we do our best to minimize the length of the electric power outage, please be prepared to be without electric service during the time indicated in the notification we sent to you.

We greatly appreciate your support and thank you for your patience.

For any other questions related to your upcoming electric power outage, you may call our Contact Center at 1-800-743-5000.

For general questions about PG&E service, visit our PG&E Help Center.

Access information about current active outages

Find electrical outages in the PG&E service territory. View or report outages. The outage map shows outages by city, county or zip code with the following information:

• Preliminary cause
• Status
• Start time
• Estimated restoration time