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The last few weeks have been brutally hot for the entire Tri-Valley with temperatures reaching 111 degrees in Livermore, according to the National Weather Service (NWS), and Pleasanton hitting well over 100 degrees a few different days.
But when the NWS issued a heat advisory at the beginning of the month, Pleasanton resident Sally Faddis said she knew what those extreme heat temperatures meant — power outages were expected.
“It’s so frequent every year that we actually fully anticipate (power outages) any time that we see a heatwave on the horizon,” she said. “We know that there’s going to be power outages because it’s been so steady over the last few years.”
And according to Pleasanton Mayor Karla Brown, these frequent power outages are not just happening in one area of Pleasanton.
“I have also heard there are some areas in Pleasanton that lose power more frequently than others,” Brown told the Weekly. “Some residents in Pleasanton are concerned their region loses power more frequently than others during a heat wave.”
Faddis, who lives on Foothill Road just south of Castlewood Drive, said every year during heat waves — and even during heavy rain — she and her family reduce appliance use and do everything else to prepare for when the power inevitably goes out.
She said the specific power grid she is on, along with just under 250 other residents, has been consistently dealing with power outages during heat waves for quite some time now.
During these last two weeks, Faddis said her house lost power multiple times each week with as much as three times during the same week — all while they were seeing temperatures in the high 90s and low 100s.
She also said at least twice, they lost power in the daytime and it didn’t come back until late in the night.
“It went out in the afternoon and it didn’t come on until sometime after 11 p.m., but I think more like in the middle of the night,” she said regarding one of the days she lost power.
Faddis said the outages were especially difficult during the heat wave because they had no power for their air conditioning, which she said they didn’t even run as much during those hot days to prevent an outage.
“When it goes out for eight hours on a day that hits 108 degrees, it gets hot really fast,” she said. “We don’t have any seniors living in our household, but there’s a lot of seniors that are living in Pleasanton and when the heat gets up that high in the house, it’s dangerous for them.”
Following both times her house lost power for a long stretch of time, she said it also lost power again the next day — although the next-day outages lasted a shorter time.
“Yes, I have heard concerns from many residents and asked staff to investigate and advocate for better service from PG&E,” Vice Mayor Julie Testa said. “We did have an eight hour outage but many neighborhoods have had multiple long outages. PG&E needs to do better, we are advocating for our residents.”
City communication manager Heather Tiernan told the Weekly she believes most of the city’s recent outages affected about 3,000 to 3,500 customers and that the city has “been in contact with PG&E about resources they have to share with the community as the same area has routinely been affected by outages.”
Tiernan said that unfortunately, PG&E only provides resources to communities that are experiencing planned outages to mitigate wildfires, which are also known as public safety power shutoff outages or a PSPS.
“PSPS is a last resort, and initiated when a combination of factors are present, including Red Flag Warnings, high heat, low humidity and low fuel moisture content,” PG&E spokesperson Tamar Sarkissian told the Weekly.
Sarkissian said that while the Bay Area experienced record high temperatures and “the longest duration excessive heat warning ever issued,” by the NWS, “the East Bay did not have all the risk factors necessary for a Public Safety Power Shut Off.”
That means planned power outages were most likely not responsible for the power outages like Faddis experienced this month.
Sarkissian said that during weather events like heat waves, equipment failure is a common cause of heat-related outages.
“Equipment often needs a period of time to cool down, and that usually happens overnight, when temperatures drop,” Sarkissian said. “When we have unusual heat events with sustained high overnight temperatures, equipment is unable to cool down, causing heat-related failure.”
Brown said that she has already asked City Manager Gerry Beaudin to work with PG&E on finding out if there are any structural weaknesses or other problems with the city’s system.
“I was told, at this time, PG&E has been working hard to get power on throughout the state, and when this heat wave passes, they will circle back to possible inherent weaknesses and how they can be bolstered to be more resilient,” Brown said.
Testa said there is a meeting scheduled for August between staff and PG&E.
Faddis added that she felt the onus ultimately falls on PG&E to address the issue — especially after seeing her PG&E rates go up exponentially over the past few years.
She said as much as the agency has been working hard on mitigating wildfire issues, it needs to pay more attention to addressing the recurring power outages in Pleasanton because she doesn’t like how there is a normalized expectation that triple-digit heat equals power outages.
“I’m paying probably twice as much as I was five years ago and we just expect (power outages),” she said. “We’ve gotten conditioned to (say) ‘oh triple digit heat is coming, our power is going to go out, be ready.'”
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Power outages are so frequent on the west side of Pleasanton I invested in solar with whole house battery backup. August 2022 power went out, it was Saturday, it was out for 18 hours. That following Monday I contacted solar contractors; it took 8 weeks to get the permits.
November 2022 my solar system was complete and operating. I received $11K tax credits, $1500 battery rebate, I export energy back to the grid approximately 8 hours every day, my battery is charged 100 percent, my home is powered from the solar panels while battery is charging. During evening hours my home is powered from the battery.
My system notifies me when the grid goes down, which is often, three times last week. Whenever there is a major storm forecast or high heat warnings, my system automatically charges the battery 100 percent from the grid if it is not already 100 percent, in anticipation the grid will go down while the warnings are in effect.