Calif. Town Charges Utility Incompetence in Outages

Burlingame, Calif.’s 28,000 residents are threatening legal action against Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) officials, following a year filled with power outages. After 33 outages, some lasting up to four days, residents of the San Francisco suburb are threatening to file a formal complaint with the California Public Utilities Commission.

The outages have affected schools and medical facilities, as well as businesses and homes.

PG&E officials claim the outages have been caused by a range of problems, including failure of the two major circuits serving the community, as well as severe weather, birds and even balloons that became caught in electrical wires. The utility says the $50,000 it spent last year to improve its circuit-monitoring capabilities will decrease outage length but won’t eliminate them entirely.

From Pure Power, Spring 2003

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