CA wildfire-related power shut-off expected after polls close, and stations have generators

During our nationwide contest for power, did a California energy company pull the plug?

"#Breaking: They shut off the power on Republican voters," a user posted Nov. 5 on X, "Pacific Gas & Electric in California has shut off power in several ‘Republican’ areas." 

The Pacific Gas & Electric Co., aka PG&E, provides electrical power to about 16 million people in northern and central California. But the company has not unplugged voters on Election Day. 

There is potential for an intentional power shut-off to prevent wildfires in high winds, but it is forecast to happen after the polls close. And voting centers have backup generators in case a shut-off becomes necessary. 

(Screenshot of X post)

In strong winds, live power lines falling down or knocking into dry vegetation can spark wildfires. So, if weather conditions merit it, utilities in California can be intentionally turned off to specific areas to reduce fire risk — this is called a public safety power shut-off. 

Because of expected low relative humidity, dryer vegetation and gusting winds on election night, the criteria for a public safety power shut-off, PG&E began notifying people on Nov. 3 about a potential public safety power shut-off the evening of Nov. 5. 

PG&E announced the morning of Nov. 5 that five polling locations, but no vote tabulation centers, fall within the potential shut-off’s scope. 

Nevertheless, none of the public safety power shut-offs are expected to take place when voting is taking place, PG&E spokesperson Jeff Smith said. "It’s continually under an evaluation" because weather can shift, but the earliest forecast shut off is 9:30 p.m. and "most of them are around 11 p.m." 

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Although power shutoffs are expected after polls close at 8 p.m. PST in California, "out of an abundance of caution," PG&E has provided backup generators to all the polling centers within the shutoff’s scope in case weather changes and the shut-off needs to happen earlier, Smith said. "But as of now, there's no expectation that we would need to do that, and there's nothing forecast until after in person voting would be over," he said around 3:30 p.m. PST. 

A 5 p.m. PST press release from PG&E said that "At this time, PG&E has not received any reports of active power outages at any polling location in our service area. An outage was reported at a polling location in Santa Rosa, but the site backup generation and service was quickly restored. PG&E has dispatched an additional generator to that site." 

A related viral claim said there were "7,000+ Polling Locations Potentially Affected," by the shut-off. But this isn’t true, either. PG&E provides electricity to more than 7,000 polling stations, but only a few of them fall within the potential shut-off area. 

As for the claim that this shut-off would affect only Republican voters, in 2020 Joe Biden won all three counties within the scope of the shut-offs: Solano, Lake, and Santa Clara. 

X users claimed that Pacific Gas & Electric Co. deliberately shut off power "on Republican voters" on Election Day.

A potential power shut-off, planned to prevent wildfires in high winds, might affect five California polling locations. But any shut-offs are forecast to come after polls close and polling centers have been provided with generators in case shut-offs happen.

This claim is False.