Rotating outages, also referred to as "rolling blackouts," are considered and called Stage 3 Emergencies by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO). Stage 3 emergencies become necessary when the ISO is unable to meet minimum contingency reserve requirements and load interruption is imminent or in progress. These emergencies are declared by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO).
CAISO will typically order the state's utilities, including PG&E, to reduce electrical load by turning off service immediately, in order to prevent larger outages on the grid. Due to the emergency nature of these outages, we will not be able to give advance warning to customers.
A rotating outage typically lasts one to two hours. PG&E will manage and rotate the outage across groups of customers throughout the service territory to protect the integrity of our electric system, while limiting the inconvenience to any one customer or community.
You can always check www.pge.com/rotatingoutages to see if your neighborhood might be impacted.