Wednesday morning around 7:45am, 6,301 homes lost power, after a fault was reported on a line that serves the San Lorenzo Valley, according to utility officials.
The outage occurred on a Pacific Gas & Electric Co. circuit that has Enhanced Powerline Safety Settings built in, which enables electricity to be cut within a-tenth of a second as a precaution against wildfires—although the cause was still under investigation.
As of 1 p.m., PG&E had restored power to all but 249 customers; it anticipated getting them up-and-running later in the afternoon.
There were 802 customers in Los Gatos who were affected, and their power was restored before 11 a.m., the company said.
“Last year, because of this EPSS program, there was an 80% reduction in California Public Utilities Commission-reportable ignitions that could result in a wildfire, compared to the prior three-year average,” said PG&E spokesperson Mayra Tostado. “Given the substantial ignition reduction benefits experienced last year, PG&E has installed these safety settings in 2022 on more than 1,000 circuits in high fire-threat areas and adjacent locations.”
Santa Cruz Mountains residents have started to become familiar with what that means.
There were two EPSS outages on July 1, including one caused by a bird flying into power lines on Hames Road, near Freedom Boulevard in Aptos, that affected 410 customers, and one due to a tree falling next to Highway 9 in Ben Lomond, leaving 759 customers in the dark.
A week later, on July 7, 1966 customers dealt with a blackout in the Scotts Valley area—after another tree crashed into the company’s equipment at Glen Arbor Road and Riverside Avenue. And on July 12, 123 customers lost electricity, after a branch struck power lines on Love Creek Road in Ben Lomond.
“We continue to work to reduce the size, duration and frequency of these outages, without compromising safety,” Tostado said, adding these events are different from Public Safety Power Shutoffs.
PSPS situations are when the company preemptively pauses service when it decides environmental conditions have become too challenging for its gear to handle.
“Customers will be notified before a PSPS takes place,” Tostado said. “We will continue to share information and resources for the different types of wildfire safety outages used to protect lives, homes and the environment.”
