PG&E enhanced safety settings triggered, causing power outages for more than 3,500 San Luis Obispo County customers

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY, Calif. – More than 3,500 PG&E customers from Pismo Beach to southern San Luis Obispo were impacted by an unplanned power outage Wednesday morning caused by a fault that occurred on the power line, according to PG&E.

The outage was first reported just before 11 a.m. and was triggered by the utility company's enhanced safety settings, spokeswoman Suzanne Hosn told News Channel 3-12.

Hosn explained that to help prevent the threat of wildfires, PG&E has advanced safety settings that can shut power off within seconds if there is a threat – such as extreme heat, dry conditions, or even a branch falling on a line – to the power line.

When those settings are activated, PG&E crews patrol the entire line to make sure that everything is working properly and it is safe to restore the power, Hosn said.

"We know how difficult it is to be without power, but we want to make sure everything is safe for our customers first," she said.

Some of the impacted customers are outside of the high-fire area, and so PG&E's engineering team is working to sectionalize the outage to restore power to those areas quicker.

The estimated time for full restoration of power is 4:45 p.m., Hosn said, adding that it may be before that.

Click here to keep up to date with PG&E's outage map.