Thousands lose power during heat wave in Vallejo
(Graphic by Solano NewsNet)
More than 3,000 Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) customers were left without electricity in Vallejo on Wednesday.
The outage occurred around 5:30 p.m. just after the start of a multi-day heat wave that saw temperatures soaring above seasonal averages across the region.
At the peak of the outage, around 3,500 customers were without electrical power, according to an interactive map provided by PG&E.
By 10 p.m., PG&E had restored power to more than 2,300 customers, and by 2 a.m. Thursday, the utility had managed to re-connect all of its customers in Vallejo.
The cause of the outage is still being investigated.
The outage hit as the region experienced the first day of a multi-day heat wave that saw temperatures rise drastically in Solano County and other parts of Northern California.
The California Independent System Operator (ISO), the state agency that monitors and regulates the electrical grid, said it anticipated an increased use of electrical power during the heat wave as residents and businesses relied on power-hungry appliances like air conditioners during the weather event.
That will likely cause a strain on the power grid, California ISO said, but it’s one that the regulator anticipates it will be able to handle, as long as enough residents and businesses voluntarily conserve power. A Flex Alert has been issued for Thursday between the hours of 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. where residents and businesses are requested to voluntarily decrease their use of appliances that use a high amount of electricity.
On Wednesday, a PG&E spokesperson said it would likely not need to implement rolling blackouts to offset the effects of high electricity demand, but warned that some areas may see localized power outages caused by heat-related transformer failures.
Those failures are likely to impact transformers along the coastal areas due to the type of equipment installed coupled with higher-than-normal overnight temperatures, which will make it challenging for PG&E’s equipment to cool down as usual. Inland areas of the state are at a reduced risk for transmission failures because the utility’s equipment in those areas are designed to withstand periods of intense heat, the spokesperson said.
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