How to Prepare for a Public Safety Power Shutoff in California

Public safety power shutoffs are now a normal part of the California calendar. Utilities de-energise lines during high wind and dry conditions to reduce wildfire ignition risk, and those events can run for days rather than hours.

Preparation is different from preparing for a storm outage, mostly because of duration.

Work out what you actually need to run

Before pricing any equipment, list what genuinely cannot go without power:

• Refrigerator and freezer
• Medical equipment: CPAP, oxygen concentrators, refrigerated medication
• Well pump, if you are not on municipal water
• Sump pump, where flooding is a risk
• Furnace blower or a portion of the HVAC system
• Internet, router and device charging
• A handful of lighting and outlet circuits

That list is usually far smaller than the whole house, and it changes the equipment conversation completely.

The options, compared honestly

Portable generator with an interlock kit. The most affordable route. An interlock or manual transfer switch lets you feed selected circuits safely from a generator you roll out. You must start it manually, refuel it, and it cannot run indoors or in a garage.

Automatic standby generator. Permanently installed, connected to natural gas or propane, self-testing, and it starts on its own when the power drops whether you are home or not. On natural gas it runs as long as the supply holds, which matters enormously in a multi-day event.

Battery storage. Silent, no fuel, no emissions, and it works well paired with solar because it recharges during the day. The limit is capacity: a battery alone will not carry a house through three days, but a battery plus solar often will carry the essentials indefinitely.

Solar alone will not do it

This surprises people every year. A grid-tied solar system without battery storage shuts down during an outage. It has to, because feeding power onto de-energised lines would endanger utility crews. If you want your solar to work during a PSPS, you need storage and the correct islanding capability.

The part that is not optional: transfer equipment

Every backup power source connected to your house wiring needs a transfer switch or interlock. This physically prevents your generator from feeding power back onto the utility lines.

Backfeeding through a dryer outlet with a double-male cord — sometimes called a suicide cord, accurately — energises the transformer on your street and can send thousands of volts down lines that a crew believes are dead. It also leaves live exposed pins on the cord. This is the one place we will not compromise.

Practical preparation beyond equipment

• Sign up for your utility's PSPS alerts, and check the address is right
• Keep devices and battery banks charged when a wind event is forecast
• Know how to open your garage door manually and locate the release cord
• Keep fuel stabilised and rotated if you have a portable generator
• Run your standby generator's test cycle and service it annually
• Keep a physical thermometer in the fridge so you can judge food safety afterwards

Service the generator you already have

The most common generator complaint we hear is that it failed during the outage it was bought for. Oil, filters, plugs, fuel and batteries all degrade. A unit that has sat untested for five years is not backup power, it is a heavy object in the side yard.

To size backup power around what you actually run, call (833) 652-8933 or read more about generator installation and transfer switches.