PG&E Responds to ‘Fraudulent’ Power Shutdown Letter Circulating on Social Media

PG&E has responded to a letter circulating throughout social media groups this week, claiming it to be fraudulent. The letter supposedly informs a PG&E customer that more power shutdowns were coming this week, but the company says that’s not true.

Here is the response from PG&E via a press release:

There is a fraudulent PG&E letter alerting customers of an upcoming planned outage for maintenance work, starting on the 16th, which indicates it could impact several counties.  This letter is a fake and there is no such outage or Public Safety Power Shutoff planned.  This letter has been widely shared on social media and indicates an extended county-wide outage. 

PG&E does routinely schedule planned power outages for maintenance.  In order for crews to safety make repairs, we have to de-energize the line in targeted areas.  Customers will receive a letter several days in advance directly to their address we have on file. 

In addition, the letter in question has a return address of Fortuna. Again, there is not a planned outage scheduled for Fortuna for October 16-19.

We have our Corporate Security department looking into the origins of the letter.  Thank you.

The letter in question was shared to a bunch of groups on Facebook, forcing the power company to respond. So if you’ve seen the letter and become worried, fear not. No power shutdowns are currently planned for this week.