Talk:2019 California power shutoffs

2017 Fires
User:EagerBeaverPJ You added to my paragraph on the effects of the 2017 and 2018 fires. There is no reference in the citation as listed to the 2017 fires, but they did happen so I’m adding a citation. Also I originally noted 85 fatalities in the 2018 Camp Fire, as found in the citation; the 2017 fires did add 44 more deaths, but only 10 of these (Atlas, Cascade) were found to be connected to PG&E or its negligence. Any death is one too many, but the documented total for PG&E is 95. Evilleavenger (talk) 15:21, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Impacts on Lower Income Medical Patients and greater communities
I was researching some of the impacts of the shut offs and many people who depend on the grid for breathing machines, keeping medications cold etc. have been severely impacted and neglected by PG&E. I found a Guardian Article about it: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/11/california-pge-utility-power-shutoff-disabled

ABC 10 PG&E Shutoffs a matter of life and death from those who rely on medical devices from youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doIXNE5MCfQ

Many parents and kids are missing out on work and school from MSN: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/california-fires-another-round-of-intentional-power-shutoffs-hits/ar-AAJgnJq?li=BBnb4R7 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 73.240.6.239 (talk) 16:33, 24 October 2019 (UTC)


 * Please feel free to edit the article, with the addition of well-sourced statements, that describe and summarize the situation. After all, on Wikipedia, anyone can edit.  Cheers.  N2e (talk) 13:31, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

A new English term: "de-energization areas"
We see here the use of a new English term: "de-energization areas." Wonder if it'll catch on in the media and popular use in evolving language? Possibly just political doublespeak.

The State of California's tweet from the Governor.

We can assume the State's marketing/PR office and lawyers liked the term. The evolution of language is fun. But we probably ought to wait for more common use in secondary sources before using the term in the article. N2e (talk) 13:29, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

CPUC authorization
There was a statement (now removed) needing citation in the lead, about the outages being authorized by CPUC. Here is an AP article from May 2019 about CPUC approving shutoffs to prevent wildfires. I am not sure if would be WP:SYNTHESIS to cite this source in that sentence as it was (possibly incorrectly implying specific approval for this set of shutoffs, while the source is not referring specifically to these shutoffs), but it might be useful in the Background or Legal setting sections. (cathartid - talk) 02:25, 6 November 2019 (UTC)


 * Thanks for finding that. Yes, seems the source is more just saying that CPUC has a regulatory structure that allows, under some (unspecified, in the source) circumstances for it to authorize a power shutoff.  But you are correct, it wouldn't really support the implication in the statement that CPUC authorized each and every one of these fall shutdowns.  N2e (talk) 12:53, 6 November 2019 (UTC)

2020 article?
California has rolling blackouts again. Net peak happens at sunset and is lower than peak demand, but ramp-up requires more resources than available. "California has shut down about 5 gigawatts of dispatchable generation since 2018, while it has only added about 2,200 megawatts of “non-intermittent” generation since then." Reduced dispatchable capacity. The Duck curve is expanding. TGCP (talk) 13:19, 30 August 2020 (UTC)

I feel like the rolling blackouts go beyond the scope of this article, as they happened not to prevent wildfire risk but rather to conserve energy during the heat wave, as the heat was creating a strain on energy supplies. I'm not sure whether to include the rolling blackouts in this article in a new section as the 2000-01 California electricity crisis page did include those kind of events, so I have to look into that. But I'm definitely planning to include the power shutoffs anticipated to occur this week due to increased fire risk. EagerBeaverPJ (talk) 01:27, 6 September 2020 (UTC)

Divide by subject, by effect or by timing? As long as the incidents are few, they can be added wherever, with suitable wikilinks to nearby articles such as the one you wrote.
 * Increased heat and unfortunate timing of rain are participating causes of fire risk. Heat is a cause of both non-fire shutoffs and fire shutoffs. If the 2020 fire shutoffs are included in this article, the name should be changed to something like "2019-20 California fire season power shutoffs" for accuracy, and a similar article "2020 California heat power shutoffs" could be created (those titles are not good), or included in the 2001 crisis article. But the partial cause and effects for consumers are some of the same, so it's a bit odd to keep them in separate articles. TGCP (talk) 08:06, 6 September 2020 (UTC)


 * I like the idea of "2019-20 California fire safety power shutoffs", but so far the rolling blackouts caused by a shortage of power have been quite few; I don't know whether they are enough to warrant their own article, but it could be named: "2020 California heat wave power shutoffs"; I wouldn't put that info into the 2000–01 California electricity crisis arcticle, since the cause is completely different. (2001 electricity crisis was due to poorly engineered deregualtion and gaming of the system). --- Avatar317 (talk) 22:15, 8 September 2020 (UTC)