transmission lines News

Forest Service Seizes PG&E Equipment as Part of Fire Probe

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Federal investigators have taken possession of a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. utility transmission pole and attached equipment in a criminal probe into what started a Northern California fire that has become the largest in the …

Storms Kill at Least 8 in Canada, Leave Half a Million Without Power

The death toll from powerful thunderstorms in Canada’s two most populous provinces this weekend rose to at least eight, authorities said on Sunday, as emergency crews continued a massive clean-up to restore power to half a million people. The storms, …

Vast Swath of US at Risk of Summer Blackouts, Regulator Warns

A vast swath of North America from the Great Lakes to the West Coast is at risk of blackouts this summer as heat, drought, shuttered power plants and supply-chain woes strain the electric grid. Power supplies in much of the …

Power Restored in Puerto Rico Nearly 5 Days After Blackout

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A private company announced Monday that power had been fully restored to Puerto Rico’s almost 1.5 million customers nearly five days after a fire at a main power plant sparked an island-wide blackout and …

Storms Batter Aging Power Grid as Climate Disasters Spread

Power outages from severe weather have doubled over the past two decades across the U.S., as a warming climate stirs more destructive storms that cripple broad segments of the nation’s aging electrical grid, according to an Associated Press analysis of …

Louisiana Assesses Major Damage to Power Grid From Ida

The damage to Louisiana’s power grid from Hurricane Ida is so extensive that the U.S. Coast Guard has joined the task of assessing the wreckage, a departure from its maritime security duties. More than 1 million homes and businesses along …

PG&E’s Power Lines Caused Biggest California Fire of 2019

Less than a month after emerging from bankruptcy triggered by a string of devastating wildfires in 2017 and 2018, PG&E Corp. has now been found responsible for California’s biggest blaze of 2019. The California energy giant’s power lines sparked the …

California Governor Newsom Is Fielding More PG&E Takeover Calls

For California Governor Gavin Newsom, sitting back and watching PG&E Corp.’s bankruptcy run its course is no longer an option. The mayors of 22 cities are pressing him to turn the embattled power giant into a customer-owned cooperative. San Francisco, …

There’s No Easy Way to End California’s Bedeviling Blackouts

California residents who were incredulous after the head of PG&E Corp. signaled a decade more of blackouts face an unnerving prospect: he may just be right. Four mass power shutoffs in a month have disrupted life in California, forcing schools …

Los Angeles and San Francisco Don’t Lose Power Even When Their Suburbs Do

Swaths of Southern California are being plunged into darkness on purpose to prevent power lines from sparking fires during the state’s latest windstorm. But the lights are staying on in Los Angeles. Just like San Francisco, L.A. has avoided the …