Multiple outages leave thousands in North SLO County without electricity
Update 7 p.m.:
The size of the Santa Margarita power outage has shrunk to 802 customers without power, according to PG&E’s outage map. A PG&E spokesperson confirmed the outage is not due to a rolling outage. It’s cause is under investigation.
Meanwhile, about 296 customers in southwestern Atascadero are once again without power. PG&E is also assessing the cause of that outage.
Update 6:25 p.m.:
Thousands of PG&E customers in northern San Luis Obispo County are without power Tuesday afternoon.
The size of the Atascadero power outage which began earlier this afternoon fluctuated widely before being resolved.
A new outage appears to have started south of Atascadero, stretching across Santa Margarita and into Pozo, around 5:40 p.m.
According to PG&E’s outage map, roughly 3,512 customers are without power in that area. PG&E is currently investigating the cause.
The smaller Paso Robles outage is also ongoing.
Update 5:45 p.m.:
More people appear to have lost power in Atascadero, according to PG&E spokesman Mark Mesesan.
Mesesan said the company initially believed power had been restored to the original 1,407 customers without electricity around 4:40 p.m., but as of 5:40 p.m. the outage seems to have grown to roughly 4,200 customers.
Another outage also is impacting residents in Paso Robles: roughly 89 customers are without power, Mesesan said. The cause of the second outage is under investigation, but Mesesan said it appears to be a heat-related equipment issue.
Original story:
More than 1,400 customers in Atascadero were without power late Tuesday afternoon, but the outage was not one of the rolling blackouts PG&E cautioned Californians were likely.
According to PG&E’s outage map, 1,406 customers north of Highway 41 West were without electricity. The cause of the outage was unknown, according to the map.
A PG&E crew was assigned to investigate.
The outage is not one of the rolling outages, prompted by stress on the state’s power grid, PG&E spokesman Mark Mesesan told The Tribune on Tuesday afternoon. He said it appears to have been due to an equipment problem.
On Tuesday morning, the utility company warned that blackouts were possible across the state, including potentially in San Luis Obispo County, if the state’s grid was overwhelmed during a statewide heat wave.
PG&E issued an additional warning at about 2 p.m. Tuesday that without significant energy conservation, blackouts would be imminent.
As of 4 p.m., the state’s Independent System Operator (ISO) said no outages were planned for the 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. hour, but could potentially occur between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Even then, it is unclear if the blackouts would impact San Luis Obispo County.
To check if your area is scheduled for a rolling blackout, you can visit PG&E’s Rotating Outage Block Look Up website; follow the instructions to get your outage block number and then check it against the company’s list here.
This story was originally published August 18, 2020 at 4:52 PM.
%20Cropped.jpg)