It’s become almost a weekly ritual, a power outage will leave residents without utility power for several hours. Safety settings prolong the outage until the whole circuit is patrolled by crews and declared safe. While this is an option to minimize wildfire ignitions, it has caused a number of disruptions in local events, not to mention no a/c during record high temperatures. Unsurprisingly, Nevada County Supervisors have received numerous complaints from constituents due to the continuous outages.

The circuit feeding the Penn Valley/Rough and Ready area, Narrows 2105, has totaled 2,822,194 minutes (47,036.5 hours) of outage split between 17,430 customers experiencing sustained outages. Narrows 2102, the circuit wrapping around Lake Wildwood logged 1,539,163 outage minutes so far (25,652.7 hours) split between 4,169 customers experiencing sustained outages.

Nevada County asked PG&E to present at a Board of Supervisors meeting on their recent work, including the power outages impacting local PG&E customers. The item is on Tuesday’s BOS agenda, as the final item during the morning session.

Brandon Sanders from PG&E will be presenting on their Community Wildfire Safety Program, including initiatives around enhanced vegetation management and undergrounding lines in addition to PG&E’s fast-trip Enhanced Powerline Safety Settings (EPSS) system. The presentation will include an opportunity for public comment and questions from Supervisors, according to PIO Taylor Wolfe.

Community members can submit public comments online before the meeting, or by phone and in person during the meeting. Online comments received by 4pm on Monday will be provided to Supervisors and become a part of the public record.

PROVIDE PUBLIC COMMENT BEFORE THE SEPTEMBER 27, 2022 MEETING BY:

  1. Leaving an eComment at www.nevadacountyca.gov/boardmeetings.
  2. Writing a letter to the Board of Supervisors at 950 Maidu Ave, Suite 200, Nevada City, CA 95959.
  3. Emailing BOS.PublicComment@NevadaCountyCA.gov

PROVIDE PUBLIC COMMENT DURING THE SEPTEMBER 27, 2022 MEETING BY:

  1. In-Person: Eric Rood Administrative Center: Members of the public can provide comment in-person inside the Board of Supervisors’ Board Chambers at the Eric Rood Administrative Center (face coverings are strongly recommended for all individuals: vaccinated and unvaccinated, except those specifically exempt pursuant to CDPH guidance)
  2. Over the Phone: Members of the public can call (530) 270-3474 and will be placed in a call-in queue until they are permitted into the meeting for comment. (Please note that the 1 (415) 655-0001 number is only for listening to the meeting.)

Here is the map of PGE circuits and substations.