SLO County PG&E customers could see longer, more frequent power outages. Here’s why
Thousands of San Luis Obispo County residents have faced at least one power outage in the past month even as heatwaves brought record-breaking high temperatures to the area.
And the frequent and long-lasting power outages will likely continue, according to PG&E.
The energy company has “heightened the settings” on its circuit breakers, line reclosers and other power line equipment to be more sensitive to problems that may create wildfire-causing sparks, according to PG&E spokesman Mark Mesesan.
PG&E has equipped power lines in other areas of the state with so-called “fast-trip” settings, which quickly turns off the power if an issue arises.
However, those fast-trip outages are expected to impact smaller areas and for shorter periods than the so-called “heightened settings” outages occurring in San Luis Obispo County, Mesesan wrote in an email to The Tribune.
This means that power outages in San Luis Obispo County will likely occur more frequently and last longer than areas with fast-trip settings, according to Mesesan.
By heightening the sensitivity settings on PG&E equipment, “We increase our automatic shut-off capability to reduce risk of our equipment igniting a wildfire, but we reduce the automatic healing capability needed to most quickly restore power to our customers,” Mesesan wrote. “These efforts are an extreme measure in response to the equally extreme drought and wildfire conditions present in our state. We will not take chances with customer safety as we combat these hazardous conditions.”
San Luis Obispo County has experienced a series of power outages in the past week.
One power outage impacted more than 2,600 PG&E customers at its peak, including those living in San Miguel, Lake Nacimiento, western Templeton and Santa Margarita. It lasted nearly 48 hours for many, starting Sept. 8 and ending Sept. 10.
Those North County customers had no electricity while temperatures soared into the high 90s to low 100s, hitting record highs in some areas.
Just two days later, on Sept. 12, more than 2,000 PG&E customers near Creston and Pozo lost power for more than a day.
On Thursday, about 220 customers in southern Santa Margarita lost electricity for a few hours.
PG&E has heightened the sensitivity of its equipment in all areas deemed to be a “high fire threat area” by the California Public Utilities Commission, according to Mesesan.
This includes the inland areas of San Luis Obispo County that have experienced repeated outages.
PG&E power outages may last longer than they had in the past, Mesesan wrote, because of the extra precautions crews must take to ensure they have thoroughly checked power lines for damage that could cause a spark should they be rebooted.
“The patrols are conducted either on the ground or in the air using helicopters,” he explained. “Crews restore customers in stages, or steps, as individual portions of the circuit are deemed safe and ready for re-energization. Ground patrols may need to be conducted on foot in very steep and difficult terrain with limited access.”
The work is done even on days where there may be little or no wind because fire risks in general are increased locally due to extreme drought conditions.
Mesesan acknowledged that power outages are a “burden” to customers.
The company is working to “adjust device sensitivity to minimize the size and duration of outages,” he wrote.
That includes transitioning equipment to the fast-trip settings so outages may be resolved quicker, though it’s unknown when that transition will be made in San Luis Obispo County, Mesesan noted.
This story was originally published September 17, 2021 at 9:00 AM.
