PG&E Planned Power Outages & Legal Liability

Beginning on October 10, 2019, PG&E initiated planned power outages for over one million Northern California residents. These outages lasted anywhere from a few hours to multiple days. Residents flooded grocery stores, gas stations, and Home Depot to stock up on necessities for the largest electrical hiatus in California’s history.

Many complained about PG&E’s lack of preparation. PG&E explained that the planned outage was aimed at protecting customers from the risk of wildfires due to strong winds that could transform a spark into a blaze. The outage was scheduled to last for as long as it took for PG&E to inspect their equipment for damages. In the past, PG&E was found liable for numerous wildfires, which inevitably resulted in them filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last January. The recent and unprecedented outage was geared toward preventing incidents that resulted in disasters such as last year’s Camp Fire and 2017’s wine country fires, both of which were determined to be PG&E’s fault.

PG&E’s decision, though, had real world impacts and caused damage to people and property. PG&E allows customers to submit claims in situations like these for economic losses such as property damage, personal injury, lost wages, lost revenue, food spoilage, and miscellaneous damages (including some hotel stays or car rentals). It is estimated that this outage could cost California more than $2 billion, because power was cut off for both residential and commercial customers alike. Businesses were closed, curfews were enacted, generators were completely wiped off the shelves. It’s possible that this outage was a result of PG&E’s own failure to inspect and repair their power lines before the fire risk became critical, and that in doing so they breached a duty to their customers. It seems reasonable for customers to expect that power lines be able to withstand seasonal weather conditions, even strong winds.