OKLAHOMA - More than two dozen Public Service Company of Oklahoma employees were sent to California last week to assist with Pacific Gas & Electric power outages associated with that state’s ongoing high winds and wildfire emergency. The employees from PSO’s Tulsa, Lawton and McAlester Districts were given their work assignments and locations once they arrived in San Franciso.
Due to ongoing high wind conditions, some PG&E power lines have been de-energized to prevent them from causing or contributing to wildfires. Other power lines have been damaged by fire. The role of the PSO workers will be to inspect and assess the condition of PG&E facilities to help determine which are ready to be re-energized, and which will require repairs. “
Although in this situation our employees won’t be working on the lines to restore power, PG&E has a critical need for experienced line personnel to help them get a handle on the best and safest way to help address this emergency while their workers focus on outage recovery,” said PSO’s vice president for Distribution, Steve Baker. According to Baker, there is no definitive timeframe for the PSO workers to remain in California, but they were told before leaving to prepare for a stay of a week or more.