6:01pm: Crews have restored power to the thousands of San Francisco PG&E customers in Pacific Heights and portions of Cow Hollow who experienced an outage this afternoon, a PG&E spokesman said.
The lights went out for some 6,650 customers at 12:35 p.m. when a piece of capacity-balancing equipment – an electrical switch at Washington and Laguna Streets – failed, PG&E spokesman Joe Molica said.
Within five minutes of the failure, crews restored power to almost 2,100 customers. Molica said all customers had service restored by 3:45 p.m.
PG&E’s first priority was to get the lights back on to customers, but now they will start removing the old equipment and installing its replacement, he said.
Throughout tonight and into Thursday, crews will be working in Pacific Heights to repair the malfunctioning electrical switch. Molica estimated that it could take 24 to 36 hours to complete the job.
Electrical switches allow PG&E to temporarily redirect neighborhood service to other portions of the grid if there is any threat of electrical overload, Molica said.
PG&E is investigating why the switch failed.
Molica said the safety and reliability of the system is paramount and that PG&E will “try to work to prevent similar failures in the future.”
3:01pm: Crews are working to restore power to approximately 1,300 San Francisco PG&E customers who are without power in Pacific Heights and portions of Cow Hollow, a PG&E spokesman said this afternoon.
The lights went out for some 6,650 customers at 12:35 p.m. when a piece of capacity-balancing equipment–an electrical switch–failed, PG&E spokesman Joe Molica said.
Within five minutes of the failure, crews restored power to almost 2,100 customers. Those customers who remain without power should see it restored by about 3 p.m., Molica said.
Electrical switches allow for “operational flexibility” by allowing PG&E to temporarily transfer portions of the grid on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis, Molica said.
PG&E is investigating why the switch failed.
Molica said the safety and reliability of the system is paramount and that PG&E will “try to work to prevent similar failures in the future.”
