PG&E warns extreme heat could trip power outages in East Bay
LAFAYETTE, Calif. (KGO) -- People have been calling into local police departments in the East Bay concerned about the smoky haze obscuring normally vivid gold and green hills. Mt Diablo is virtually invisible.
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Lafayette police issued an alert to let residents know ---you don't need to call in, it's not a local fire -- it's actually smoke drifting in from 160 miles away in the Sierras where firefighters are battling the 3500-acre Ponderosa fire.
PG&E plans to open emergency operation centers Friday as they brace for the extreme heat -- temperatures over 110 degrees in many parts of the East Bay.
PG&E spokesperson Tamar Sarkissian predicts that Concord and Livermore will see some of the highest temperatures in the Bay Area so they are preparing for those areas to potentially see outages.
It's all hands on deck and lots of spare transformers and cable on hand as PG&E relies on technology to predict where to move crew with outage prediction models.
RELATED: Smoke spotted in Bay Area stems from NorCal fires
PG&E spokesperson Paul Doherty says they've got equipment installed on the grid that helps heal the grid -- things like line sensors on power lines.
The heat and a spare the air alert for Friday warning of exceptionally high ground level O-Zone pollution have prompted schools to take action. Amador Valley high school in Pleasanton has canceled a tennis match and the JV football game tomorrow, moving their varsity game to a later start time to beat the heat.
San Ramon Valley unified school district has also canceled all indoor and outdoor athletic events now through Monday.
That includes all fall sports like tennis football cheerleading and band.
Today's weather is just a "warm up".
For electricity conservation tips, visit www.flexalert.org/save-energy.
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