PG&E Delays Outage Planned For 2,600 Calistoga Customers

CALISTOGA, CA — UPDATE, 2:35 p.m. Friday: Pacific Gas and Electric Company's planned power outage for 2,600 Calistoga customers was scheduled for Friday night but has been delayed by 24 hours, a PG&E spokesperson said Friday afternoon.

The delay is because further work is needed at the Calistoga substation, PG&E North Bay Spokeswoman Deanna Contreras said.

PG&E was notifying affected customers Friday afternoon that the outage has been rescheduled to take place between 10 p.m. Saturday and 5 a.m. Sunday.

"A piece of large equipment needs to be replaced and that is en route," Contreras said. "We will be using a lane on Hwy 29 to bring in a crane to lift the replacement equipment into the PG&E substation."

According to Contreras: "Barring any other unexpected delays, generators will be offline and customers will be back on grid power no later than Monday evening. We thank you for your patience."

ORIGINAL POST: A power outage is planned overnight Friday in Calistoga as Pacific Gas and Electric Company works to bring 2,600 customers back onto its main power grid.

Those 2,600 customers have been served by generators since the Glass Fire caused significant damage to PG&E's distribution and transmission systems.

As a result, PG&E lost the ability to provide power to many North Bay customers, including in Calistoga. In early October, PG&E brought in several generators to power up its state Highway 29 Substation as well as the lower Washington Street generator site to provide power to Calistoga residents and businesses while crews worked on restoration.

"These generators have been a significant disruption and inconvenience to surrounding residents," the city of Calistoga said. "However, they have allowed Calistoga to remain with power over the past seven weeks — keeping our businesses and schools open and operating and has allowed our residents to remain in their homes during power distribution repairs. The City sincerely apologizes for this impact and is grateful for the patience and understanding of the affected residents."

The goal is to bring these remaining Calistoga customers back onto the grid by the end of the day Saturday, according to a PG&E spokesperson.

"We will power down the generators after 10 p.m. on November 13 and therefore we have notified customers that they will experience a power interruption during the transfer," said Deanna Contreras, PG&E spokeswoman for the North Bay. "Approximately 2,600 Calistoga customers will be impacted at any time between the hours of 10 p.m. November 13 and 5 a.m., November 14."

Unfavorable weather could cause the date of the planned outage to change, Contreras said.

"We thank our customers, who are our neighbors, friends and co-workers, for their patience during this time," Contreras said. "As rebuilding and restoration efforts for the Glass Fire have now completed, we are demobilizing the microsite at the Charles Krug Winery in St. Helena."

Contreras noted that in Napa County, PG&E replaced 823 poles damaged in the Glass Fire, a combination of 19 overhead and pad- mounted transformers were replaced, and 71 spans of damaged conductor were replaced.

At the peak of restoration activities, Contreras said, some 1,000 employees and support staff were working out of the St. Helena microsite. Restoration from Glass Fire damages has taken 31 days and a cumulative 500 hours per person, she said.