PG&E is working a lot smarter these days thanks to smart meters.

If the storm system hitting Northern California  starting today carries much of a punch and knocks out power, smart meters will help PG&E pinpoint any power outages that occurs quicker as well as determine the exact scale of an outage.

PG&E spokesperson Nicole Liebelt noted that previously the company had to rely entirely on people calling in about losing power. That would require a crew to be dispatched to determine the location of the outrage and when it occurred. They were also hamstrung by not knowing how widespread a local power outage is whether it impacted just one home or over a wide area.

Once the scope and the cause were determined then crews equipped to handle the problem were dispatched.

While PG&E still needs customers to call in outages since power loss could be extremely local as in one or a small handful of customers, smart meters are playing a growing role in significantly reducing the amount of time it takes to get power restored.

Smart meters allow PG&E to remotely determine the extent of the outages not only saving time but also allowing them to pinpoint quicker where the problem is located in the system. PG&E basically asks individual smart meters whether the power is on so crews can be dispatched only when and where they are needed

Smart meters have been widely credited with allowing accurate billing readings done in a much more efficient and timely manner. The anxiety that arose in some quarters about potential health issues - the meters emit significantly lower levels of radiation than cell phones and microwaves - eclipsed other benefits the device suffered. One was significantly better responses by a utility company during power outrages.

PG&E does have a monitoring system that remotely detects problem and notifies the proper “restoration group”  but that is primarily on major lines.

The approaching weather fronts are far from being  classified  as a storm of the century.

But that doesn’t matter to PG&E.

The San Francisco-based utility has been dissecting models of the storm front as they always do when rain, wind or snow events move across any portion of PG&E’s 70,000-square-mile service area that encompasses most of Northern and Central California.

“We make sure that the proper crews are put on alert,” Liebelt said.

Mother Nature has been relatively kind this winter for the more than 160,000 miles of power lines PG&E maintains for 5.1 million customers. Due to the dry weather pattern, the last major event that PG&E crews had to handle in regards to power outrages was from the severe late November wind storms.

“Most of the damage was up in Calaveras, Tuolumne, and Mariposa (counties) where there were a lot of trees,” Liebeldt noted.

PG&E has a year-round system maintenance operation aimed at minimizing storm-related issues. That ranges from keeping power lines free of vegetation to making sure dirt and dust don’t create problems on insulators and transmission lines.

Part of that maintenance includes using helicopters for aerial water cleaning of dirt build up - especially in transmission towers in wide-open areas - to avoid the elements combining with dirt to trigger rusting and other problems that can interrupt the flow of electricity.

While power outages are often unavoidable in severe weather, Leibeldt noted PG&E works diligently to reduce the odds of them happening.