More than 200,000 Pacific Gas and Electric customers are expected to be affected by rotating power outages Saturday evening, according to a utility spokesperson.
The California Independent System Operator (CAISO), has directed PG&E to conduct rotating power outages during the early evening and late evening Saturday, based on current power usage forecasts.
The outages are expected to affect approximately 220,000 PG&E customers in portions of the Central Coast and the Central Valley, including Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Joaquin counties.
No customers should be impacted overnight, according to PG&E.
PG&E’s Emergency Operations Center is activated. The team has already restored some customers who were part of the outages.
These outages are being called because the state’s energy supply is not enough to adequately meet anticipated demand during the statewide heatwave. Other power utilities in the state are being directed to conduct similar rotating outages. These outages are not Public Safety Power Shutoffs, which are called during specific high fire threat conditions, and they are not related to any issues with PG&E’s equipment or its ability to deliver energy locally.
“This is a statewide issue that we are working together with CAISO and many stakeholders to address,” said Michael Lewis, PG&E’s interim president. We know how important it is to have access to reliable power during these times, and we are doing everything we can to limit the impacts.
Our team is working diligently to keep these rotating outages as short as possible, so that there is no further impact to the grid. We appreciate our customers’ patience as we work to restore power to everyone this evening.
Weurge all of our customers to take immediate steps to reduce their power usage.
I propose that all those who are anti-nuclear power or advocate doing away with dams as a source of CLEAN energy should volunteer to be the ones subject to blackouts.
They should REALLY go green and forgo electrical power altogether. Making a solar panel creates a lot of pollution.
I could be wrong but I believe the real problem is grid capacity, not production capacity.
So PG&E is going to exempt the Bay Area from power outages? In exchange for favorable treatment from Herr Newsom I suppose?
The coast makes sense, not as hot. Central Valley is a head scratcher lol
Can remember back when pg&e meant reliable power.
welcome all to the 3rd world
I believe the last rotating outages were 2011.
365 days a year I can turn on heat or air conditioning. I can power up my Macintosh or iPad, while my iPhone has been recharging as I sleep.
Right now we are dealing with a pandemic and horrible heat wave. All the things you are used to doing may be interrupted at some point.
Why not look on the bright side. This is not third world.
@JJ-
OG made a comment that I echoed. Sorry if that triggered you, was not my intent. All the rosies of the world like yourself may continue to do as you wish. Ignore what is going on around you. PG&E used to stand for reliability. It no longer does. Pandemic? You mean new corona virus that will in time just become part of the regular flu season. Why do those who are least risk have to hide? Why does the economy have to shutdown to protect those who are most vulnerable? It seems that keeping those who need to be isolated as such would be a better choice. But we are being lead by experts who have an agenda. That agenda is not the truth. I assume at this point you are once again triggered, so sorry again for that. I hope you can find a safe space. Back to PG&E why do we keep building more homes when we are experiencing power shortages? Now at this point you will say that this is just an exception and shouldn’t be judged as normal. Which is funny as I expect you are a climate fear monger and that the world is getting hotter in your opinion. So if that is the case then logically (I hope you are sitting down for this) we will need more power to keep the houses we have and will have cool, won’t we? So isn’t the new and coming normal, for the climate fear mongers like yourself? And yes I do think that is you. Those who ignore the world around them are also likely to just believe what ever they are told. I encourage you to get involved with the world around you, read up solar cycles, make sure you are recycling, don’t buy an electric car and anything else you find makes sense after getting educated. But I expect what you will do is keep your head in the sand, do what you are told to do and believe everything you are told to believe.
Good luck!
Part of the problem is the CA government (including the CPUC) not allowing new bulk generation to be built and demanding that Diablo Canyon be shut down (which will happen in 2024/2025). Part of the problem is PG&E’s mismangement on upgrades. Part of the problem is the CPUC not approving PG&E’s requests for upgrades. Part of the problem is the CA government requiring solar on new homes.
Just wait until 2024/2025 when Diablo Canyon goes offline. You ain’t seen nothing yet.
Better stock up on candles and flashlight batteries. You thought there is an ammo shortage? Just wait.
Plan to install a 25kW natural gas fed generator next year at our new house. Welcome to Calenzuela.
PH Dad,
Hopefully your generator is dual fuel as PG&E shut off both gas and electric last year due to a fire threat.
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/pge-gas-shut-off-leaves-thousands-of-sonoma-county-residents-in-the-cold/
Wait till we’re all forced to buy Teslas.
Perhaps PG&E will tell us (by county) about the relative TOTAL power draw between back when so many people were working in “powered up” office buildings as compared to now when so many are working from home throughout the day?
I suspect that most buildings with more than one level of management don’t have anyone anyone responsible for controlling lights and heat. Everything stays on 24/7. Even if only one person is working in an office everything has to be on.
Sounds a lot like what Enron did to us I don’t recall major power outages until Enron became our power broker.
Maybe Brown and Newsom can give some speeches talking about how unacceptable this is.
And then maybe Scott Wiener can propose a bill to outlaw the word from black from blackout.
Now that you mention it, that term does seem hostile to African-Americans…
Eye yie yie 🤦🏻♂️ Please stop it hurts.
Why are black Americans even called African Americans?
What are white people from Africa called?
@ Sam…..you can call White people from South Africa “Yarpies”…. but be prepared to defend yourself.
KCBS radio reported yesterday that as part of these rolling blackouts, PG&E cut off power to an EBMUD waste treatment plant in west Oakland. EBMUD had no prior warning, and apparently no backup power/generators at the site. Sewage backed up, and 50,000 of partially treated and untreated sewage spilled into the Oakland/Alameda Estuary.
Mary – Speaking from having been in the wastewater business for 25 years, there has to be more to the story than what is being reported. A pump station of that size and importance must have had a standby generator, and I’ll bet the generator failed. It happens at buildings all over town including hospitals. There is a lesson there.
Don’t forget the human factor. Having to switch from primary power to backup is not a common occurrence.
Someone putting a switch in wrong position or person writing control logic renames a bit incorrectly and mistake goes unnoticed until, what is supposed to happen doesn’t.
Have seen an oversight in training cause problems.
An you’d be shocked if you knew how many supposedly pointy headed wonders with years of college and an alphabet soup of letters after their name on a business card, Do Not Think Things All The Way Thru.
Is not IF something is going to go wrong, it’s when.
Level of experience and knowledge of equipment and process of person trying to resolve the problem.
Have seen new industrial electricians look at prints, look in program logic and an ole brush snapper with 40 years walks up and turns a selector switch to correct the problem.
Kirkwood – Great point. I’ll see if my SF Chronicle has any news about this in tomorrow’s delivered paper. With the early deadlines, some of the local news and sports is a day behind on the printed publication.
My husband Jim, an architect, oversaw a construction litigation repair job some years ago for a condo project built along the Oakland Estuary. As a condition of building, the HOA could not use Roundup in it’s vegetation management program, to prevent any runoff of Roundup into the Estuary. If the Estuary is indeed that fragile, I’m surprised the press isn’t giving this incident more coverage.
Well there’s a good reason I can be happy not to live in that neighborhood anymore. That’s horrible.