PG&E To Hold San Mateo Co. Webinar On New Power Safety Settings

SAN MATEO COUNTY, CA — San Mateo County residents are invited to participate in a webinar Tuesday with PG&E to discuss the electricity provider’s new powerline safety settings.

PG&E has had to initiate recent power outages in high fire-risk areas around the Bay Area due to safety measures to reduce wildfire risk called Enhanced Powerline Safety Settings (EPSS). It plans to adjust the sensitivity of some electric equipment in these areas to automatically turn off power faster if an issue is detected.

The company’s adjustments include allowing only the area directly impacted by a certain fault to have power cut instead of the entire circuit, according to PG&E.

“While EPSS has proven effective at helping protect our customers from catastrophic wildfires in our most high fire-risk areas, it has also resulted in more frequent outages for some customers,” PG&E said in a news release.

Since PG&E implemented the safety settings, it has seen a decrease of 60 percent in potential ignitions compared to last year, according to the company.

The webinar will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday and can be viewed here.