Update: High Country Outage Restoration Pushed To Thursday
Update at 7 :15 p.m.: PG&E customers in the Cold Springs, Pinecrest and Strawberry areas along Highway 108 will have to go another night without power.
The outage is impacting 1,700 since a storm blew through Tuesday night. PG&E spokesperson Brandi Merlo says a lightning strike created a major equipment failure at the Spring Gap substation above Pinecrest. She elaborates, “We’re in the process of bringing in some mobile generators to restore service to those customers. Where they’re located on the grid we don’t have the ability to reroute power to them.” She explains how the transition will work, “The mobile generators, basically, we tie them into the system and they are able to energize the line and restore power to our customers, allowing us to make the necessary repairs on the equipment that was damaged.”
However, the process to switch over to the generators takes time, acknowledges Merlo, who notes that is why the utility has posted a restoration time of 9 a.m. Thursday. She adds that customers will face another outage when the repairs are done. Then the generators will be shut off and the equipment at the station turned back on. She stresses that outage should be much shorter, if all goes well.
Update at 2:15 p.m.: PG&E has pushed back the repair time for more than 1,700 customers in Tuolumne County without power since last night. Crews had hope to have the lights back on by 1 p.m. but have moved that restoration time to 6 p.m. The utility has determined the cause of the outage is due to “major equipment failure.” Those impacted are in the Cold Springs, Pinecrest and Strawberry areas along Highway 108.
Update at 2 p.m.: The lights have been restored to all 88 customers impacted by a power outage in Calaveras County. Further details on area outages below.
Update posted at 12:40 p.m.: Angels Camp, CA — PG&E is reporting a new power outage in the Angels Camp area of Calaveras County. 88 customers lights went out just before 11 a.m. The areas impacted are west of Highway 49 along Pool Station Road, Riata Way, Tapadero Street and Jaquima Drive. The company gives a 2:15 restoration time.
Original post 10 a.m.: Cold Springs, CA — PG&E reports that customers impacted by a big power outage in the area around Cold Springs and Pinecrest should be restored by 1pm today.
The outage started last night, and PG&E reports it is due to “major equipment failure.” There are 1,704 customers impacted. We’ll pass along more information as it becomes available.
