Strong dry offshore winds resulted in Pacific Gas & Electric shutting off power to 25,000 customers in 20 counties starting Oct. 11 to protect against power lines sparking fires. The counties with the largest number of shutoffs were Butte, Shasta, and Tehama. By the end of the day on Tuesday, Oct. 12, nearly all of the customers’ power was restored. However, another preventative shutoff affecting about 16,000 customers in 12 counties was predicted for Oct. 14 because of more strong winds blowing off the coast in Northern and Central California. As of late Thursday, only customers in Kern County had had their power interrupted.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission should revisit its Order 1000 because its aim of creating transmission competition has not materialized, the Industrial Energy Consumers of America stated in an Oct. 12 filing to FERC. According to a Brattle Group study, only about 3% of transmission projects are competitively bid, the group added in its comments on the Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding FERC’s regional transmission planning, regional cost allocation, and generation interconnection processes.