SMUD power outage in Sacramento not part of California rolling blackouts, utility says
Nearly 9,000 Sacramento Municipal Utility District customers were without power Monday afternoon, including about 8,500 customers in downtown Sacramento and South Natomas amid an oppressive heatwave.
SMUD officials said Monday’s 13 outages throughout Sacramento were not part of any rolling blackouts or planned outages. They also said they had crews working on the outages to quickly restore power to those customers.
While it’s unclear what caused the faults, extreme heat often creates problems for electrical distributions line, causing them to overheat and sag — sometimes leaving them drooping into trees and other objects, which creates a short circuit.
About 4,200 SMUD customers were without power in downtown, and about 4,300 customers in South Natomas were without electricity, according to the utility district’s data.
By 2:30 p.m., the number of SMUD customers without power had reduced to about 6,300 among 16 outages, and now included more than 2,600 customers without electricity in the Land Park neighborhood. Power had been restored to most of the customers in downtown.
Nearly 1,800 customers in South Natomas as of 4:30 p.m. Monday remained without power among nearly 2,000 customers without electricity in 10 active outages throughout the Sacramento area. As of 6 p.m., most of those customers had their power restored.
About 4,400 SMUD customers on Orangevale were without power about 5:45 p.m. Monday, and this outage also was not related to rolling blackouts or planned outages, the utility district said. As of 8 p.m., the SMUD crews had restored power to its Orangevale customers.
There were more than 21,000 Pacific Gas and Electric Co. customers without power Monday afternoon in the greater Sacramento region, according to PG&E data. Those customers were among 88 PG&E outages in the region that were the result of rolling blackouts as the energy supplies are drained during the heatwave.
Monday’s rolling blackouts included about, 13,000 PG&E customers in Yuba City, about 2,200 in Oroville, about 1,400 in Marysville, about 1,300 in Placerville and about 1,100 in Grass Valley.
The manager of California’s power grid has warned a third night of rolling blackouts was a near certainty on Monday. Since Friday, the California Independent System Operator has ordered utilities in its jurisdiction — much of the state — to shut off power in a series of rolling blackouts.
SMUD, unlike PG&E, is not aligned with the ISO for balancing power on the grid and is not required to participate in rolling blackouts ordered by the grid operator. On Sunday evening, SMUD officials asked customers to limit electricity use during this week’s heatwave to help avoid any power outages, according to a news release from the utility district.
Heavy use of air conditioners will push electricity use to record levels that require the supplies from all SMUD power sources, officials said. They asked residential customers to raise air conditioner thermostats to 80 degrees or higher and limit household appliance use from 1 to 9 p.m., along with limiting water usage to lower electricity demand for pumping, processing and delivery.
SMUD officials asked commercial and industrial customers to reduce lighting not essential for safety purposes in garages, hallways, lobbies, warehouses and displays. They also recommended minimal use of office equipment, supply and exhaust fans, circulating pumps and maintenance and repair equipment.
This story was originally published August 17, 2020 at 2:42 PM.
