The shutdowns have drawn widespread fierce backlash and criticism from residents as well as government officials as PG&E, SCE, SDG&E and the California Public Utilities Commission issued an apology.
PG&E warned the state for months of its impending action, set to commence when the combination of high autumn winds and dry conditions made the fires more likely to happen.
[15]: 1 Critics of inverse condemnation point out that it can lead to utility bankruptcies which can threaten the integrity of the California power grid as well as hurt financing the states' efforts for renewable energy and against climate change, one of the causes of the intensified fire threat.
[17] The fire risk from the electricity supply is principally from the large amount of energy carried in above-ground power lines, which under fault conditions can become a factor in the ignition of wildfires.
Affected devices included ventilators, oxygen concentrators, nebulizers, dialysis machines, refrigerators for drugs such as insulin, and electrically powered beds, hoists and wheelchairs.
PG&E also refused to give many local counties access to the Medical Baseline list, leaving them unable to check on vulnerable residents.
[29][30] Under backup power on October 11, 2019 [UTC], the Mission Operations Center (MOC) at the Space Sciences Laboratory at University of California, Berkeley oversaw the deployment of a satellite launched from Cape Canaveral.
[36] By the end of October, PG&E officials told a federal judge that the power shutoffs so far helped prevent up to 56 wildfires; 44 from contact with vegetation and 12 cases of wind-caused equipment damage.
[38] In March 2021, the CPUC presented the results of a risk analysis study conducted by Technosylva[39] to estimate potential fire impacts that could have occurred had electric infrastructure remained energized during the Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) events managed by SDG&E, PG&E, and SCE in October 2019.
[40] The risk analysis study found the following: On October 18, 2019, PG&E announced that shutoffs could continue for 10 years before they can start to reduce significantly, which was met with scorn by many California officials.
However, on September 5, 2020, PG&E issued a PSPS Shutoff Watch for several regions in Northern California in anticipation of scorching temperatures and gusty winds at the end of the heat wave that could easily knock off power utilities.