---
title: "PG&E blacked out 85,000 customers as its $2 billion cut slows new homes, renewables and data centers"
description: "PG&E says the connection deferrals that followed wildfire reform's failure in Sacramento will slow new homes, renewables and data centers alike; consumer advocate Mark Toney says data centers are the one class PG&E is not slowing. The dispute lands with 85,511 customers dark in the widest planned shutoff in eight years."
publisher: "The Inference"
section: "Power"
published: 2026-10-17T18:15:38.388Z
modified: 2026-10-17T18:15:38.388Z
canonical: https://theinference.org/article/pg-e-blacked-out-85-000-customers-as-its-2-billion-cut-slows-new-homes-renewables-and-data-centers
language: en
keywords: "PG&E, Blackouts, Wildfires, Data Centers, California, Capital Spending"
---

# PG&E blacked out 85,000 customers as its $2 billion cut slows new homes, renewables and data centers

> PG&E says the connection deferrals that followed wildfire reform's failure in Sacramento will slow new homes, renewables and data centers alike; consumer advocate Mark Toney says data centers are the one class PG&E is not slowing. The dispute lands with 85,511 customers dark in the widest planned shutoff in eight years.

Pacific Gas and Electric counted 85,511 customers without power at 10 a.m. on Friday, October 16, up from 61,730 the morning before, after [warnings placed about 88,000 customers across 29 counties in scope](https://investor.pgecorp.com/news-events/press-releases/press-release-details/2026/With-Change-Statewide-Fire-Weather-Forecast-Planned-PGE-Public-Safety-Power-Shutoff-Event-Now-Includes-88000-Customers-in-Portions-of-Twenty-Nine-Counties/default.aspx), roughly 5,500 of them people who rely on powered medical equipment [1][2]. It was the largest effect from a planned shutoff in eight years, concentrated in the Sierra foothills, and crews must inspect lines on foot, by vehicle and from the air before power returns [1].

## The cut came in September; the reach landed this week

The $2 billion cut is older than the blackout. Hours after the California Legislature rejected the wildfire liability bill in early September, chief executive Patti Poppe [announced the company would defer about $2 billion of planned 2027 investment](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/pg-e-defers-2-billion-in-planned-2027-investment-after-liability-bill-fails/ar-AA2bwHpP), trimming the year's capital spending to $11.4 billion from $13.4 billion [3][4]. What is new this week is the cut's reach: PG&E has announced delays or deferrals of electrical connections for new homes, renewable-energy projects, data centers and other development, and renewable projects may slip by up to a year [5][6].

## Homes and solar wait behind a 12.7 gigawatt queue

Mark Toney, executive director of the consumer group The Utility Reform Network since 2008, says schools, housing, hospitals and factories will carry the delay: "I don't hear [PG&E](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/pg-e-corporation) slowing down data centers. PG&E wants data centers to jump the line" [6]. The queue behind his complaint holds [12.7 gigawatts of proposed data centers, 3.9 gigawatts already in final engineering](https://www.utilitydive.com/news/pge-claims-127-gw-in-data-center-pipeline-as-utility-courts-smaller-loads/826099/), and Poppe expects to serve 1.8 gigawatts of that load by 2030 [7]. PG&E itself names data centers among the deferred projects; the jump-the-line charge is Toney's reading of which deferrals actually bind.

*Chart: **Only 1.8 of 12.7 gigawatts in PG&E's data center pipeline is expected in service by 2030** Bar chart of PG&E's data center pipeline: 12.7 gigawatts proposed, 3.9 gigawatts in final engineering, 1.8 gigawatts expected in service by 2030*

*Proposed data center load in PG&E's pipeline, in gigawatts, with the 3.9 gigawatts already in final engineering and the 1.8 gigawatts chief executive Patti Poppe expects to serve by 2030. Source: Utility Dive, July 2026. [7]*

## PG&E's answer: the $73 billion plan holds

The company's counter is that [the five-year, $73 billion capital plan through 2030](https://theinference.org/article/pg-e-defers-2-billion-of-capex-and-rations-new-power-hookups-its-73-billion-plan-is-the-test) is intact, needs no new equity, and that [second-quarter core earnings of 40 cents a share beat the 36-cent consensus](https://embers.news/article/pge-shares-fall-after-q2-earnings-beat-due-to-regulatory-risks-152273) [3]. Poppe's own warning still stands: "If the framework remains unresolved or insufficient, then we would need to reevaluate our capital allocation priorities" [3]. The impasse is already priced into borrowing on a balance sheet carrying $64.7 billion of total debt, with customers paying an incremental $600 million of financing costs over two years and Fitch moving its outlook on PG&E to negative [8][11]. Eight rate-increase proposals sit pending at the California Public Utilities Commission [6].

*Chart: **Debt has climbed $8.7 billion in three years, to $64.7 billion, just as PG&E trims 2027 spending** Line chart of PG&E Corporation total debt by quarter from Q3 2023 to Q2 2026, rising from about $56 billion to $64.7 billion*

*Total debt, US$ billions, quarterly, Q3 2023 through Q2 2026, from PG&E Corporation's SEC filings. [11]*

## October 20 and October 22 price the drag

PG&E owes state regulators [its own valuation of San Francisco's grid on October 20](https://theinference.org/article/pg-e-prices-the-san-francisco-grid-at-20-billion-the-city-offered-3-4-billion), a figure Poppe puts north of $20 billion against the city's $3.4 billion offer [9]. [Third-quarter earnings follow on October 22, with consensus at 42 cents a share](https://www.tradingview.com/news/zacks:51a46dd37094b:0-pg-e-to-report-q3-earnings-what-s-in-the-cards-for-the-stock/), down 16 percent year over year, on $6.59 billion of sales, and Zacks ranking the stock a Sell [10]. At $13.08 against an $18.50 average analyst target, the market is already weighing the wildfire drag against AI load growth [9]. The interconnection queue has become the committee that decides which AI projects break ground in California, and October's shutoffs are the argument both sides will use to remake it.

## Takeaway

PG&E's wildfire-liability stalemate has already deferred $2 billion of 2027 spending and left 85,511 customers dark; the October 20 grid valuation and October 22 earnings decide whether the $73 billion plan and the 12.7 GW data center queue hold.

## Sources

1. [Abridged by PBS KVIE, When will power be restored? PG&E meteorologists expect Sierra foothills wind to ease, 16 October 2026](https://www.abridged.org/news/when-will-power-be-restored-pge-placer-eldorado/)
2. [PG&E Corporation press release, Planned PG&E Public Safety Power Shutoff Event Now Includes 88,000 Customers in Portions of Twenty-Nine Counties, 14 October 2026](https://investor.pgecorp.com/news-events/press-releases/press-release-details/2026/With-Change-Statewide-Fire-Weather-Forecast-Planned-PGE-Public-Safety-Power-Shutoff-Event-Now-Includes-88000-Customers-in-Portions-of-Twenty-Nine-Counties/default.aspx)
3. [Embers, PG&E Shares Fall After Q2 Earnings Beat Due to Regulatory Risks, 16 October 2026](https://embers.news/article/pge-shares-fall-after-q2-earnings-beat-due-to-regulatory-risks-152273)
4. [ABC10 (KXTV Sacramento), PG&E defers $2 billion in planned 2027 investment after liability bill fails, 3 September 2026](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/pg-e-defers-2-billion-in-planned-2027-investment-after-liability-bill-fails/ar-AA2bwHpP)
5. [Sacramento Bee, After utility wildfire fight, PG&E may delay renewable projects up to a year, 16 October 2026](https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article317642637.html)
6. [East Bay Times, Consumer advocate Mark Toney keeps sharp eye on PG&E, other utilities, 16 October 2026](https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2026/10/16/pge-consumer-bill-gas-electric-economy-jobs-power-svchat-toney/)
7. [Utility Dive, PG&E says it has 12.7 GW in data center pipeline as it courts smaller loads, 24 July 2026](https://www.utilitydive.com/news/pge-claims-127-gw-in-data-center-pipeline-as-utility-courts-smaller-loads/826099/)
8. [Yahoo Finance (StockTwits), PG&E CEO Says AI Data Centers Are Boosting California's Power Demand But Wildfire Liability Reform Remains A 'Real Challenge', 30 September 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/energy/articles/pg-e-ceo-says-ai-140202187.html)
9. [The Inference, PG&E prices the San Francisco grid at $20 billion; the city offered $3.4 billion, 15 October 2026](https://theinference.org/article/pg-e-prices-the-san-francisco-grid-at-20-billion-the-city-offered-3-4-billion)
10. [Zacks via TradingView, PG&E to Report Q3 Earnings: What's in the Cards for the Stock?, October 2026](https://www.tradingview.com/news/zacks:51a46dd37094b:0-pg-e-to-report-q3-earnings-what-s-in-the-cards-for-the-stock/)
11. [PG&E Corporation, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 17 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001004980)


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PG&E blacked out 85,000 customers as its $2 billion cut slows new homes, renewables and data centers — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/pg-e-blacked-out-85-000-customers-as-its-2-billion-cut-slows-new-homes-renewables-and-data-centers