Update: Power restored to thousands of SLO County PG&E customers after outage
Update as of Friday at 5 p.m.:
The thousands of San Luis Obispo County residents without power Wednesday evening through Friday have had their power restored, PG&E marketing and communications representative Mark Mesesan wrote in an email to The Tribune.
Mesesan said the customers had their power restored by noon Friday.
At the peak of the outage, about 2,600 customers were without power as temperatures soared into the high 90 to low 100 degrees.
Update as of Thursday at 5:45 p.m.:
Thousands of San Luis Obispo County residents are still without power Thursday evening even though the outages were expected to be fixed by 5:15 p.m., according to PG&E.
The energy company has restored power to about 670 customers in the area west of Templeton and Lake Nacimiento, leaving 281 without power. Those customers have been without power since just before 7 p.m. Wednesday, according to PG&E.
The cause of that outage is still unknown, Mesesan wrote in an email to The Tribune.
Those customers may have power restored by 11 p.m. Thursday, PG&E’s outage map says.
More than 2,050 customers in the Santa Margarita area are still without power, according to PG&E.
Originally, 1,663 customers in that area had lost power, but that number rose as an additional 410 customers in the area west of Santa Margarita Lake lost power at about 1:23 p.m. Thursday, according to PG&E’s outage map.
Those power outages were caused by a car crashing into a power pole, Mesesan wrote.
The customers east of Santa Margarita Lake can expect their power to be turned back on at about 11:59 p.m. Thursday, according to PG&E’s outage map. Those east of the lake can expect to turn on the lights at around 8 p.m. Thursday, the map shows.
Original story:
Thousands of North County residents were without power Thursday afternoon as a large PG&E outage affected customers.
The outage began for 960 customers in the San Miguel, Lake Nacimiento and western Templeton areas at about 6:46 p.m. Wednesday, according to PG&E.
Another 1,663 customers’ power went out at about 11:05 a.m. Thursday in the Santa Margarita area, the energy company’s power outage map showed.
Those living in the San Miguel, Lake Nacimiento and western Templeton areas could expect their power to be restored at around 4 p.m. Thursday, while people in the Santa Margarita area could expect their lights to turn back on by about 5:15 p.m., according to PG&E.
PG&E was investigating the cause of both outages.
The energy company had crews on the ground and a helicopter in the air over the area of the power outage in the San Miguel, Lake Nacimiento and western Templeton areas, according to PG&E marketing and communications representative Mark Mesesan.
The power outage in the Santa Margarita area may have been caused by a downed power line.
“We are investigating a report of a downed wire in this case, likely related to a vehicular collision with a power pole at or near the intersection of Highway 58 and Pozo Road being reported by Cal Fire,” Mesesan wrote in an email to The Tribune.
Mesesan noted that both power outages are in “high wildfire threat” areas, so crews must inspect the entire circuit carefully.
The outages come as North County and inland areas are experiencing a heat wave. Temperatures are expected to reach as high as 96 to 106 degrees in some areas, according to the National Weather Service.
This story was originally published September 9, 2021 at 12:27 PM.
