San Francisco, June 20, 2026, 08:03 PDT
- PG&E logged outages affecting over 9,000 customers across Monterey County, Clovis, and Shasta County in about two days.
- Northern California saw disruptions as storms moved in, with dry lightning threats and fresh questions about utility prep for peak summer demand.
- PG&E said crews are checking equipment in some of the affected areas, but the latest local reports did not confirm causes.
Power went out for PG&E customers in different parts of northern and central California this week. Local outlets reported outages stretching from the Monterey Peninsula up to Clovis and Shasta County. Storms and early-summer fire weather hit the region.
The outages are a problem now because they’re big enough to show how tough it is for California utilities to keep power on in the heat and storms, without risking fires from broken equipment. PG&E says it serves over 16 million people in northern and central California, across 70,000 square miles.
PG&E said 3,916 customers on the Monterey Peninsula lost power in an unplanned outage, according to KSBW. Power was still out at 5:08 p.m., the station reported, and was expected back on later that night.
Clovis had 1,916 customers lose power Thursday when an unplanned outage was reported to PG&E at 4:42 p.m. PDT, GV Wire said. PG&E crews were looking for damaged areas in the electrical system to start repairs. The cause wasn’t known, and there was no estimate on when service might return.
PG&E had more than 3,000 customers out in Shasta County on Friday, with storms causing the biggest fresh cluster of outages. By 4 p.m., KRCR said 3,346 customers were without power in 14 separate areas. PG&E was still checking its system for damage and making repairs, but hadn’t given specific reasons for the outages.
Redding Electric Utility, which isn’t part of PG&E, saw outages Friday as storms moved through. KRCR said power went out for 1,038 REU customers at 2:45 p.m. and came back by 4:15 p.m. Separate from that, 572 customers near Quartz Hill Road and the River Park Drive and River Ridge Drive area lost power at 3:36 p.m.
Unusual weather hit Northern California. The San Francisco Chronicle said Thursday a weak atmospheric system was forecast to push in dry lightning and raise fire risk in some areas, especially the mountains. Fire weather watches and red flag warnings were out in certain regions.
National Weather Service forecasters dialed back their outlooks by Saturday morning near Shasta Lake. Heat started to build again. The agency projected sun on Saturday, then a high of about 92 on Sunday, with Monday expected to get up to 96. Those temperatures can push up electricity demand as more air conditioners switch on.
No confirmed link between the Monterey, Clovis and Shasta County outages. That caution stands. Equipment issues, weather, trees, or local faults can all trigger similar outage maps, and utilities usually wait for crews to complete checks before pinning down a cause.
PG&E’s public safety power shutoff page says a PSPS is a planned outage used when bad weather could knock trees or debris into equipment, raising wildfire risk. The California Public Utilities Commission uses the same term for utility power cuts aimed at lowering fire risk from electric lines. Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric have to manage the same wildfire conditions in their areas. They weren’t listed in this week’s outage reports. PG&E
PG&E’s risk is more than just missed kilowatt-hours. When blackouts hit, no matter how short, customers—homes, restaurants, small businesses—keep complaining. Regulators notice, too. They’re already watching how utilities handle reliability, wildfires, and alerts. That pressure gets sharper when the lights go out.
The near-term risk is that restoration targets could get pushed back if field crews run into damaged equipment, access trouble, or fire-safety restrictions. The flip side: if outages stay local and repair teams can bring service back up without big damage or a fire start, this ends up as another tough summer day for operations, not a bigger grid story.
