Pacific Gas and Electric Co. shut off power Sunday across parts of Northern California, including areas of the Bay Area, as strong, dry winds raised wildfire danger and thousands of customers were left without electricity.
A PG&E truck next to a vineyard off Silverado Trail North near Calistoga, California, on October 13, 2020. PG&E shutoffs and other outages affected more than 46,000 customers Sunday, May 17, 2026, as strong winds raised fire danger across Northern California.
PG&E’s outage center showed 46,664 customers affected by 549 outages as of 3:43 p.m. Sunday, though that total appeared to include both planned public safety power shutoffs and unplanned outages.
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- PG&E outage map: Bay Area shutoff details by address
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The utility said public safety power shutoffs had been announced to help prevent wildfires.
The shutoffs were visible across a broad stretch of PG&E’s outage map, including clusters in the North Bay, East Bay, Sacramento Valley, Central Valley and Sierra foothills.
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In the Bay Area, the utility’s public safety shutoff warning included parts of Alameda, Contra Costa, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties.
The event was wider than PG&E had signaled earlier in the week, when the utility listed an elevated shutoff risk in seven counties. By Sunday, PG&E had upgraded the forecast to “PSPS Warning — shutoffs required” for parts of 15 counties: Alameda, Colusa, Contra Costa, Fresno, Glenn, Lake, Merced, Napa, San Benito, San Joaquin, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Tehama and Yolo.
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PG&E’s forecast kept the warning in place for Sunday and Monday, then showed no public safety power shutoff expected Tuesday through Saturday.
PG&E’s outage map showed public safety shutoffs across parts of the Bay Area, North Bay, Central Valley and Sierra foothills as wind gusts threatened to reach 60 mph in higher terrain on Sunday, May 17, 2026.
The utility uses public safety power shutoffs during periods of strong wind, low humidity and dry vegetation to reduce the chance that energized electrical equipment could ignite a wildfire.
The California Public Utilities Commission describes PSPS events as temporary power shutoffs to specific areas meant to reduce fire risk from electric infrastructure.
The shutoffs came as the National Weather Service warned of breezy to windy conditions through Monday, especially in the North Bay, East Bay and South Bay mountains and the Santa Cruz Mountains.
The weather service said elevated fire weather concerns would continue across interior areas because of low humidity and strong gusts.
A wind advisory was in effect from 11 p.m. Sunday to 11 a.m. Monday for the Santa Cruz Mountains, North Bay interior mountains, eastern Santa Clara hills and East Bay hills.
Forecasters expected north-to-northeast winds of 15 to 30 mph, with gusts up to 50 mph and local gusts up to 60 mph. The weather service said the winds could knock down tree limbs and cause a few power outages.
PG&E urged customers to check the utility’s outage map for address-specific information because outage boundaries can shift and county-level warnings do not mean every customer in those counties will lose power.
Hazardous beach and marine conditions were also expected through Monday, according to the weather service.
