REGISTER STAFF
Pacific Gas and Electric Companyâs expanded network of enhanced weather technology, including weather stations and high-definition fire-watch cameras, helped reduce the size of each Public Safety Power Shutoff event in 2020 on average by 55%, the utility reported.
At the end of 2020, PG&E had 1,000 weather stations and 340 cameras in operation throughout Northern and Central California, providing more precise weather data to the companyâs team of meteorologists and outside agencies. More than 121 of those weather stations and 31 cameras are in the North Bay counties of Marin, Napa and Sonoma.
The weather stations, along with sectionalizing devices that isolate the grid into smaller segments and deployment of temporary generation and microgrids, enabled PG&E to keep the lights on for thousands of customers who would have lost power during comparable weather events in 2019, PG&E said. PG&E removed more than 800,000 customers during 2020 PSPS even