Since the Dec. 20 blackout knocked out power for a third of San Francisco, there have been 40 large-scale blackouts, each affecting more than 1,000 customers, according to a letter from city leaders to the California Public Utilities Commission.
That’s a rate of nearly one a week.
The mayor, city attorney, president of the Board of Supervisors, and general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission are once again calling on the CPUC, which regulates utility companies, to conduct a public investigation into PG&E that goes beyond the December blackout and covers the power outages since that have vexed San Franciscans.
A letter from the city to CPUC President John Reynolds lists 40 major outages since January, with more than 25% affecting San Francisco’s west side, where December’s blackout persisted the longest.
It also contains a laundry list of other issues, including delayed infrastructure projects, two recent fires caused by PG&E equipment, and the utility’s plan to sell Substation I, a SoMa property the city has indicated it wanted to buy.
“We have received the city and county of San Francisco’s letter and are reviewing it,” PG&E spokesperson Tamar Sarkissian said. “We will respond to the letter as appropriate. We remain committed to safely serving our customers in San Francisco and across our service area.”
It’s at least the third time the city has publicly demanded that the CPUC make its investigation of the December blackout public, according to the letter. The CPUC has said it is investigating the outage privately and confirmed in an email that the investigation is ongoing.
However, the letter from city officials contends that since December, PG&E has provided “little information” about how the outage at the substation at Mission and 8th streets led to a citywide blackout that lasted days.
“In light of PG&E’s actions over the last nine months and the ongoing pattern of outages and disruptions including two fires in the last week, an open and transparent investigation is even more critical now than it was when we sent our letter in March,” says the letter, which was dated Oct. 8.
Rolling blackouts March 20 from the Castro to Haight-Ashbury affected 14,000 customers, according to the letter. A July blackout in the Richmond and Presidio left 9,500 customers without power. Two days later, outages from Glen Park to Bernal Heights affected 12,000. Many of the reported outages list the cause as “unknown.”
A PG&E underground electrical fire Oct. 1 led to a road closure and evacuation of multiple blocks in downtown San Francisco. | Source: Morgan Ellis/The Standard
The letter points to two underground vault fires in downtown San Francisco on Sept. 17 (opens in new tab) and Oct. 1 (opens in new tab) attributed to PG&E equipment. It also highlights four San Francisco infrastructure projects undertaken by PG&E that have hit major delays, including one in the southern part of the city that is on hold (opens in new tab) and has been delayed by eight years.
“Has the delay of these projects contributed to the continued reliability problems in San Francisco? This is a reasonable question for San Francisco leaders and customers to ask,” the letter says.
The letter repeatedly raises questions about whether PG&E’s infrastructure is reliable enough for the city’s growing energy demand. It also criticizes the company for intending to sell a deactivated substation one block from the one that caught fire and led to the December outage. The letter says the city hoped to acquire the substation, citing its potential importance in serving electrical demand if the substation at Mission and 8th streets fails again or if baseline electrical demand grows beyond what the neighboring substation can provide.
It also expresses growing discontent from the city, which for years has evaluated purchasing PG&E’s electrical infrastructure to create a public utility company. The December blackout added force to that call; state Sen. Scott Weiner and Rep. Nancy Pelosi have both vocalized their support, though Mayor Daniel Lurie has remained circumspect about the plan’s viability..
During a February hearing called by Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, PG&E CEO Sumeet Singh revealed that a failed circuit breaker at the Mission and 8th substation led to its immolation and the subsequent Dec. 20 outage, after which a cavalcade of screw-ups by the utility hampered the response.
A PG&E technician took 45 minutes to reach the substation and contacted the Fire Department an hour after the blaze started. Firefighters then had to refer to paper plans of the substation — in pouring rain — to find the best route and put out the fire.
During the hearing, Singh said the utility invested $200 million in rebuilding the substation at Mission and 8th streets, which has caught fire three times: in 1996, in 2003, (opens in new tab) and Dec. 20. The 2003 fire also occurred on Dec. 20, and also during rain.
An independent report released in May by consulting firm Exponent found that PG&E failed to repair a damaged insulating board, which contributed to a short that caused the fire, despite uncovering it during an inspection five weeks beforehand.