Following up on Cliff Mass' forecast earlier today, PG&E is in a spot of trouble - from Zero Hedge:
California Faces "Biggest Blackout Ever" As 2.5 Million PG&E Customers May Have No Power For Days
Earlier this week we joked that with PG&E now scrambling to enforce intentional blackouts every time there are powerful winds for fears the bankrupt company's aged infrastructure could cause a new fire, "every time the wind blows California will become Venezuela."
Turns out it wasn't a joke.
On Friday, with its stock crashing to a new all time low amid speculation it may have been responsible for the latest California inferno, the Kincade Fire...
... PG&E warned it will shut off power again on Saturday to as many as 2.5 million people as violent winds batter the state, in what according to Bloomberg will be "California’s largest intentional blackout ever."
According to a Friday statement, approximately 850,000 homes and businesses in Northern California, including much of the San Francisco Bay Area, may be impacted beginning Saturday evening. And with data models indicating the weather event could be the most powerful in California in decades, with widespread dry Northeast winds between 45-60 miles per hour (mph) and peak gusts of 60-70 mph in the higher elevations through Monday, large swaths of the region could be without power for days.
Bay Area? This is going to be brutal. If only they had taken some of their money and spent it on maintaining their infrastructure instead of building pie-in-the-sky alt.energy pipe dreams. Rooftop solar that feeds the grid instead of local storage? Insane.
BTW - out of morbid curiosity, I checked and it is now trading for $5/share. Looking at the decade view, you can see a nice steady climb until mid to late 2017 when it peaked at $70 and then it is down the tubes after that.
A modicum of Googling will show you why. The beginnings of the idea that their infrastructure was failing and they ceased paying dividends on their shares of stock. If I had some FYM, I might be tempted to buy a few thousand shares but they will probably reorganize into a different corporate entity to screw out all shareholders (and employee pension obligations). Nice people.
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