We’re committed to delivering safe and reliable power to each of our customers every day. We constantly work to safeguard our electric system to minimize the risk of service interruptions. During the winter storm season, when outages may occur, our crews and emergency response teams do everything they can to keep the lights on. When storms result in interruption to your service, we do our best to restore service as quickly and safely as possible.
You can take steps to minimize the safety risks and inconvenience caused by a power outage:
After a storm, our crews’ first task is to assess the damage. In the case of a major, widespread storm, this assessment can take days. During this phase, you may see our trucks in your neighborhood as you continue to experience an outage. The information they gather helps us plan our work.
In an outage situation, addressing hazardous situations such as downed wires is priority. Next, we focus on restoring as many customers as we can, as quickly as possible. We also prioritize repairs that restore service to critical facilities such as hospitals, water pumping stations, and police and fire departments.
As we work to restore power to all customers, you may see your neighbor’s lights on, while your location remains in the dark. Different parts of a neighborhood may be on different circuits, and not all circuits are restored, at one time. Sometimes, a problem only affects service to your home. Whenever you experience an outage, you can report it to us using your mobile device. Visit Report & View Electric Outages or call 800-743-5002.
Learn how we measure our reliability by constantly tracking and monitoring outages across our service area. Understand how we calculate our reliability rates based on this data.
Learn when and how to safely turn off the gas during an emergency by following a few, easy guidelines.
PG&E has precautionary measures in place to help reduce the risk of wildfires. Our goal is to help customers prepare for and stay safe during extreme weather events, including sending notifications when and where possible when power may be turned off for safety.
For public safety, it may be necessary for us to temporarily turn off electricity when gusty winds and dry conditions, combined with a heightened fire risk, threaten a portion of the electric system. We will attempt to contact customers in advance to ensure there’s enough time to prepare.