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<\/a>Pacific Gas & Electric employees work in the PG&E Emergency Operations Center in San Francisco. Authorities say power outages have started again in parts of Northern California.<\/p><\/div>\n
Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. has begun to cut power to about\u00a0179,000<\/a>\u00a0customers in 17 counties in Northern California.<\/p>\n The utility announced what it calls “Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) events” Wednesday morning after\u00a0warning customers<\/a>\u00a0earlier of the likelihood of its actions to reduce the potential for wildfires.<\/p>\n “Based on the latest weather readings, PG&E will be turning off power in portions of our service area as outlined below,” read\u00a0the announcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Wednesday afternoon blackouts involved parts of Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sierra, Tehama, Yuba, Lake, Mendocino, Napa and Sonoma counties.<\/p>\n Portions of San Mateo county, just south of San Francisco, will have power outages early Thursday morning, as will Kern county in the Central Valley.<\/p>\n The power outages could last longer than 48 hours.<\/p>\n “Once the weather subsides and it is safe to do so, PG&E crews will begin patrolling power lines, repairing damaged equipment and restoring customers,” the utility’s announcement said.<\/p>\n Some customers will experience power outages even though their locality is not experiencing “critical fire weather,” in other words, high winds that can damage power lines.<\/p>\n “This is because the energy system relies on power lines working together to provide electricity across cities, counties and regions,” PG&E\u00a0explained<\/a>.<\/p>\n