Two Recent Major Mother Lode PG&E Power Outages Had Same Cause

Photo by: Tracey Peterson

Sonora, CA — Around 30,000 Mother Lode PG&E customers lost electricity on March 6, and a similar number lost power again this past Thursday, April 15.

Clarke Broadcasting has been requesting details about what caused the recent outages. PG&E earlier stated that a fire impacted a transmission structure, which caused the March 6 blackout. Also, the utility indicated earlier this week that it was an equipment failure that caused the April 15th incident.

PG&E spokesperson Megan McFarland is providing more details this morning. She says, “Both the April 15 and March 6 outages were due to transformer equipment failures.”

She adds, “The two outages were not related. The reason they both impacted so many customers was because the transformer equipment failures impacted our 115 KV transmission line.”

The outages mostly impacted Tuolumne County customers, along with a smaller amount in Stanislaus and Calaveras counties.

It is not immediately clear what steps are being taken to prevent future similar incidents.