San Francisco’s Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee held a hearing on Thursday on the citywide PG&E power outages that started in December.
It was led by Supervisors Alan Wong and Bilal Mahmood. They asked representatives from PG&E to explain response timelines, communication gaps, and the cause of the outages. This was the third time since the 90's that there’d been an issue at the Mission substation where the outages likely originated. Here’s PG&E’s CEO Sumeet Singh speaking with Supervisor Mahmood.
“In 2010 more than $200 million alone were invested to upgrade and rebuild essentially this specific substation,” Singh told the committee. “But over the last 20 years in the San Francisco—”
“So you put $200 million into this specific substation?” Asked Mahmood.
“Yes, that's correct. In 20—”
“And it still broke?”
“So that's part of what we don't know if it broke. What we do know is, you know—” said Singh.
“You said the circuit breaker failed,” Mahmood interrupted.
The conversation largely revolved around what PG&E needs to do to make sure that, in the event of another outage, things go more smoothly. Here’s Mary Ellen Carroll, the Executive Director of the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management.
“ What I would like to see out of this, and we have begun these conversations with PG&E, is that we need better coordination and communication with PG&E as the energy provider and with the city,” Carroll said.
“Things happen with infrastructure and these are complicated incidents, and I don't think it's reasonable or realistic to say to PG&E you have to let us know exactly when this is going to happen. What felt to me that was concerning is that within PG&E it was clear that there was issues within the communication within the organization.”
PG&E offered a $200 credit to its residential customers, and a $2500 dollar credit to small business owners, but some, like Daniel Ramirez who owns a small business on Irving St. say that wasn’t enough.
“The $2,500 credit is appreciated as a starting point, but it is not sufficient for businesses that were down for multiple days. Claims are absolutely necessary, and at the same time, the claims process remains difficult and time consuming.”
The city has been looking into acquiring PG&E for years. After December’s outages, Supervisor Connie Chan introduced a resolution reaffirming the city’s efforts to acquire the company.
Supervisor Wong made one amendment to this resolution during Thursday’s meeting, promising that, if the city does acquire PG&E, that it would also acquire the company’s workforce. Here’s Wong.
“The city shall prioritize the seamless transition of such workers into city employment with full recognition of their skills, experience, and years of service.”
The committee voted to send the amended resolution to the full Board of Supervisors.
PG&E hired an outside party to investigate the causes of the outages. Once the results of that investigation are published in March, the Public Safety and Neighborhood Services committee will hold a second hearing on the PG&E outages.
