PG&E may cut power to some customers in Santa Maria area as part of Public Safety Power Shutoffs

Just under three dozen PG&E customers in the Santa Maria may be among the 800,000 across the state to have their power shut off this week.

The utility says 32 customers could be impacted by a Public Safety Power Shutoff as soon as Wednesday.

A PG&E spokesman was unable to confirm exactly where the outage would take place, but said it would be in the “Santa Maria area.” Additional calls to PG&E had not been returned as of Tuesday night.

The utility’s website was also experiencing issues Tuesday night, which made it difficult to search for specific neighborhoods that would be impacted by potential power shutoffs.

The Santa Barbara County Office of Emergency Management tells KCOY/KEYT it does not anticipate any public safety power shutoffs in the county.

A PG&E meteorologist said earlier this week that it was unlikely there would be any outages in Santa Barbara or San Luis Obispo counties, however, it is always possible.

Just shy of one million PG&E and SoCal Edison customers could lose power beginning Wednesday. The goal of these planned power outages is to prevent the utilities’ equipment from sparking a wildfire. Both have been blamed in recent deadly and devastating wildfires across the state, including the Thomas Fire which burned in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

KEYT