UPDATE (8:50 p.m.) - PG&E reports power has been fully restored to all customers in the area west of Highway 101 between Highway 46 and Lake Nacimiento.
In the Santa Margarita area, electricity has been restored to all but 355 customers who lost power after a vehicle crashed into a utility pole.
PG&E says it has suspended helicopter inspections of the circuit until daylight, but crews on the ground will continue to conduct inspections overnight and restore power to more customers as it's safe to do so. However, PG&E says power may remain out for some people until tomorrow once helicopter inspections can resume and any additional needed repairs are made.
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UPDATE (6:30 p.m.) - Power has been restored to all but about 280 customers in the area west of Highway 101 between Highway 46 and Lake Nacimiento.
PG&E says it is close to completing all required line inspection work on that circuit, which must be done before the remaining customers have power restored.
The cause of that outage is still unknown.
In the Santa Margarita area, two outages were reportedly caused by a vehicle crash that took out a power pole, leaving more than 2,070 customers without electricity.
PG&E says it is still doing aerial and ground inspections of that circuit. Currently, full restoration is not expected until at least midnight.
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(12:05 p.m.) - More than 2,600 PG&E customers were without power again in northern San Luis Obispo County on Thursday.
The first of two large outages started at about 6:45 p.m. on Wednesday, affecting 960 customers on the west side of Highway 101 from just south of Highway 46 to Lake Nacimiento.
PG&E says it has not yet identified the cause of the outage. A spokesperson says crews are in the area and a helicopter is in the air inspecting the circuit, which could not be done during nighttime hours.
PG&E says the entire circuit must be inspected because of its location in a high wildfire threat area.
"We have been advising our customers that this additional safety step can lead to more frequent and potentially longer outages at the local level, but it is an important step to keep PG&E's customers and communities safe," said PG&E spokesperson Mark Mesesan.
The utility expects to begin restoring power in sections, with full restoration expected by 4 p.m. Thursday.
Another outage was affecting more than 1,660 customers in an area from Santa Margarita to Pozo.
That outage started just after 11 a.m. Thursday
According to the California Highway Patrol, a vehicle collided with a utility pole in the area of Highway 58 and West Pozo Road and lines were down across the roadway.
PG&E says the circuit for this outage is also in a high fire-threat area, so crews will have to conduct a complete inspection of the affected circuit before power can be restored.
The current estimated time of restoration is 5:15 p.m.
