Is there not a technical solution to this? A side effect here will be people creating their own power systems. I have already had my power go off 4 times this year and now I am looking at solar panels, batteries, and a natural gas generator.
The same... I'm looking forward to some solar now. I just yesterday bought the Harbor Freight 100W solar panel set for starters, as it's on sale right now. I had purchased a generator for the PSPS but we were informed about 6h prior to event that we were in a small area that would be spared.
Sure but most people aren't you. When they think "Hey, my power isn't reliable." they go buy a diesel generator. Maybe a gas one. Arguably that's not even a bad choice.
I suspect that you're right -- that there is a technical solution -- and that PG&E isn't technically competent enough to find it. They couldn't even keep their website running!
Their business model has been mostly static for many years. In that time, the whole business can ossify, and only now -- when the environment has changed -- do they need to adapt. And they aren't prepared to do it.
So I did a bunch of research and the best generators of these types are the Winco and Cummins ones. The ones they sell at Home Depot are not meant to run more than a couple hours at a time.
If you want a generator that will run for weeks on its own you need to look for "off grid".
