Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) officials announced today that the utility will be moving forward with this month’s second round of public safety power shutoffs (PSPS) today, turning off power to parts of 17 counties in Northern California, in response to warnings of dry, hot and windy weather and increased wildfire dangers.

Parts of San Mateo County, the North Bay and Kern County were affected starting at 2 p.m. today, with subsequent rounds of shutoffs continuing until 1 a.m. on Thursday. An estimated total of 179,000 customers are expected to be affected by this event. Weather forecasts currently suggest that the wind event will fully subside by Friday.

This shutoff follows the PSPS earlier this month, which began on Oct. 9 and lasted up to three days in some areas. At the time of the previous shutoff, PG&E claimed that they did not foresee any future PSPS events, although the conditions were subject to change depending on the weather.

“This is not the future any of us want to live in. Our goal over time is to reduce wildfire risk further across the system, to shut off power less frequently and to further minimize the impact of shutoffs,” PG&E CEO Bill Johnson said at a press conference on Oct. 10 following this month’s first power shutoff. “Given the risk to public safety and the desire to have zero spark during conditions like the ones we’ve had over the last several days, we are very likely to have to make this kind of decision again in the future.”

Any customers who will be impacted by this shutoff event were notified by PG&E via call, text, or email, and the utility had stated that it will continue updating customers on the current situation. Customers can check the potential PSPS map provided by PG&E for estimated regions of impact.