PG&E faces frustrated Pleasanton residents, shares plans to curb outages

Pleasanton residents frustrated with PG&E over repeated outages

Pleasanton residents voiced their frustration at a PG&E community meeting after months of repeated power outages. The utility shared upgrade plans already in the works and pledged greater transparency moving forward.

Pleasanton - After months of repeated and unexpected power outages, many Pleasanton residents say they’ve had enough. On Monday night, PG&E hosted a community information session to address growing frustration and offer answers.

The majority of the outages have affected West Pleasanton. According to PG&E, the area has experienced 16 outages so far this year, most of them unplanned. Since 2021, about 45% of those outages have been tied to equipment failures or related issues.

"My wife works from home, so regular morning and then suddenly boom, nothing, so we scramble, she scrambles," said Jeff Eaton, a Pleasanton resident. "We also go out and get ice for the refrigerator."

Other residents described dealing with multiple outages in a single day.

"Sometimes twice a day, sometimes once a week," said Steve Langes. "Very upset, it’s going to be a thing right where frustration's setting in."

State Senator Jerry McNerney, who represents the area, said the string of outages has disrupted daily life for many, including his.

"We had a rash of about 5 outages over about a two-week point, so it got to be, we didn't know if we could leave the house for hours," McNerney said.

In response to community concerns, PG&E Vice President Jake Zigelman explained the outages are sometimes triggered by wildfire prevention systems.

"We have settings that are called enhanced powerline safety settings. They’re designed to trip off our equipment within a tenth of a second, anytime something happens to that equipment," Zigelman said. "We had a couple outages that were caused by turkeys for example, that got into our lines, it could be a tree limb."

Zigelman told residents that PG&E is working to improve the grid by breaking it into smaller sections, allowing for more targeted responses and reducing the number of customers impacted during outages.

"I’d say we hear you, that’s why we're here tonight, we understand the frustration," he added.

McNerney acknowledged the company’s transparency during the meeting, but also criticized the utility's timeline.

"The thing that's impressive about this is that they're open, some of the charts I’ve seen make sense. I don’t think they’re hiding any information, I think that's good and beneficial," McNerney said. "But what they're not saying is that they should have done this maintenance a decade ago or two decades ago, before the wildfires got so dangerous."

One resident said he was able to apply for a PG&E program that provided a solar-powered backup battery for customers who qualify for a medical baseline program. He uses a sleep apnea machine and said having the battery has brought him peace of mind.

PG&E says upgrades to improve service reliability in Pleasanton will continue into next year.