A PG&E substation in West Oakland, August 15, 2020. Photo: Pete Rosos
Update, 6:35 p.m. Electric power outages in Berkeley on Monday might final up to 5 hrs and could recur Tuesday and Wednesday from 3-10 p.m., the city suggests.
Update, 5:53 p.m. Authorities in Berkeley have just announced that 33,964 PG&E prospects “will be incorporated in rolling blackouts this evening. PG&E has not indicated the areas that will be affected. For extra information and facts simply call PG&E at 800-743-5000. If you have a everyday living-threatening unexpected emergency, simply call 9-1-1.” Metropolis staff sent out an inform with this new information at about 5:50 p.m., a number of minutes following PG&E educated the town of these specifics.
Original tale: Some regions of Berkeley may well eliminate energy Monday “because of high electrical power demands statewide,” Berkeleyside has uncovered.
Alameda County has been sending messages through the working day about the possibility of outages, but none of them incorporated unique information and facts about Berkeley. Neighborhood people also acquired robocalls about what ended up explained as the risk of “rotating outages” in the space. Officials have said lowering electricity use could avert outages in the course of the ongoing heatwave.
Just ahead of 4:10 p.m., city staff members despatched Berkeley council users an e mail expressing “some element or parts” of Berkeley could lose electricity for a person to two hrs involving now and 10 p.m. Monday. The town is striving to get more information and facts from PG&E about where the outages will happen, how extensive they will final and no matter if any health care baseline consumers — men and women who need to have electrical energy for their healthcare demands — will be influenced, said a person person who gained the email.
The county has requested regional people and firms to preserve energy from 3-10 p.m. Monday via Thursday owing to the predicted strain on the grid from what is been described as a document-breaking, persistent heatwave.
“Due to heightened energy calls for statewide, PG&E and the state ISO [Independent System Operator] have issued a statewide flex warn starting off these days and long lasting until finally August 20th. From 3-10 PM, be sure to conserve electricity use in your house,” Alameda County officers wrote Monday in an AC Alert concept. “There is a sturdy chance of rolling blackouts during the state. This usually means there is a prospective of shedding ability to your region thanks to overload on the electrical grid. There is also a prospective for nearby warmth linked outages not associated to these rolling black outs. Make sure you be make preparations for a potential reduction of electrical power to your household.”
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Vitality conservation guidelines from authorities involve boosting the thermostat, applying admirers, masking home windows, averting oven use, preserving the fridge closed as a great deal as attainable and confining laundry and dishwashing to early in the day or after 10 p.m.
The metropolis experienced not offered its e mail to Berkeleyside or shared any other information as of publication time regardless of recurring inquiries. PG&E has not responded to a ask for for information and facts.
