PORTLAND, Ore., Sept. 8, 2022 — Due to the imminent high, gusty winds during extreme fire conditions, Portland General Electric announced today that it will initiate a public safety power shutoff (PSPS) for approximately 30,000 customer homes and businesses located in 10 designated PSPS areas and two additional areas with high fire risk. The 10 designated PSPS areas are as follows: Mt. Hood Corridor and Foothills (Area 1); Columbia River Gorge (Area 2); Oregon City (Area 3); Estacada (Area 4); Scotts Mills (Area 5); Portland West Hills (Area 6); Tualatin Mountains (Area 7); Northwest Hills (Area 8); Central West Hills (Area 9); and Southern West Hills (Area 10). In partnership with local officials, we are also planning preventive outages in two additional areas: Silverdale/Corbett and Silver Falls. These actions are a proactive measure to reduce the risk of wildfire during these extreme fire conditions and to help protect people, property and the communities we serve.
Winds are expected to increase overnight at higher elevations and move across our service territory through Friday morning into the afternoon. The most critical weather conditions are anticipated for late Friday evening into Saturday morning. Based on current information, PGE estimates public safety power shutoffs in PSPS areas will start Friday morning between 12:00 a.m. and noon. If the event duration is as anticipated and assuming there is no damage to our system, power restoration could begin as early as Saturday evening. Damage to our equipment and/or system could create delays in restoration timing.
Estimated power shut off start times by area for Friday, Sept. 9 are as follows:
Area 1: 3:00 a.m.-6:00 a.m.
Area 2: 5:00 a.m.-8:00 a.m.
Area 3: 8:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.
Area 4: 3:00 a.m.-6:00 a.m.
Area 5: 5:00 a.m.-8:00 a.m.
Areas 6, 7, 8 and 9: 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Area 10: 11:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.
In addition, while the following areas are not in the designated high fire risk zones or in the PSPS areas, because of the imminent high winds, the extreme fire conditions currently found in Oregon and in partnership with local officials, the areas of Silverdale/Corbett and Silver Falls will also experience preventive outages. We expect the outages for these two areas to start Friday, Sept. 9 between 5:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m.
Crews will be standing by, and as weather conditions allow PGE, will begin to physically inspect power lines and equipment and make any repairs necessary to safely restore power. PGE will provide updates at least every 24 hours until all customers regain power through email, text, social media, press releases, and at portlandgeneral.com.
At this time, PGE customers, and particularly those located in the 10 designated PSPS areas should go to portlandgeneral.com/psps and confirm if power to their address is scheduled to be turned off. After shutoff customers will receive an email and/or text notification confirming we are aware their power is out.
Weather conditions, particularly the high wind, create the potential for outages both within and outside of the high fire risk zones, so we encourage all customers to prepare to activate their emergency plan, gather their outage kit and if they rely on electricity for medical needs, implement their backup plan. Additionally, given the extreme weather conditions, PGE encourages all customers to be aware of their surroundings, pay extra attention to signage and to avoid downed power lines.
To help affected customers and communities during the event, PGE currently plans to open at least 5 Community Resource Centers from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. every day, until power is fully restored to the areas. Information, bottled water, ice, access to charging for personal devices and Wi-Fi will be available. More information can be found on portlandgeneral.com/psps; current planned locations include:
Area 1: Welches Elementary School, 24901 E Salmon River Rd, Welches
Area 1, 2, 3, 4: Estacada Baptist Church, 29101 SE Eagle Creek Rd, Estacada
Area 5: Silverton Safeway, 301 Westfield St, Silverton
Area 7, 8, 9: Banks Jim’s Thriftway, 12350 NW Main St, Banks
Area 9, 10: Sheridan High School, 433 S Bridge St., Sheridan
PGE is communicating directly with customers in the impacted areas and is raising awareness through news media, social media and other channels. Customers can find the latest information on portlandgeneral.com and on social media -- @PortlandGeneral on Twitter and @PortlandGeneralElectric on Facebook. Customers can speak with customer service advisors by calling 503-228-6322. Our advisors can provide assistance in more than 200 languages.