Service is back for all 3,400 customers in Palo Alto's northern neighborhoods impacted by a power outage that began early Monday morning, according to Palo Alto Utilities.
The outage started at about 4:15 a.m. The primary affected area was in the vicinity of the substation at Colorado Avenue and West Bayshore Road. Many of the affected customers were in the city's northwest section and an area northeast of Middlefield Road.
As of 11:10 a.m., power was back for about 3,230 customers, according to the Utilities Department. Another roughly 170 customers remained without power until about 8:30 p.m.
A Palo Alto Utilities crew found the issue stemmed from a section of the underground lines with a fault, according to the Utilities Department.
The Police Department asked the public to not call 911 or the Police or Fire departments about the outage, which backs up phone lines, police said.
Comments
Registered user
Palo Verde
on Aug 22, 2022 at 9:02 am
Registered user
on Aug 22, 2022 at 9:02 am
I happened to be up at 4:30 and the power was out then, so that 7:30 statement is wrong.
Registered user
Palo Verde
on Aug 22, 2022 at 9:04 am
Registered user
on Aug 22, 2022 at 9:04 am
Our power was out from about 4am to 7am this morning. Nothing from the Utility Department about the cause, or even that it happened. This sounds like a separate outage.
Seems like Palo Alto grid has gotten less reliable in the past month. What's going on?
Registered user
Leland Manor/Garland Drive
on Aug 22, 2022 at 9:10 am
Registered user
on Aug 22, 2022 at 9:10 am
The electrical clock on my oven stopped at 4:07am
Registered user
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Aug 22, 2022 at 9:14 am
Registered user
on Aug 22, 2022 at 9:14 am
The article is inaccurate. Ours went out at 4 am and came back at 7 am both approx.
Registered user
University South
on Aug 22, 2022 at 9:20 am
Registered user
on Aug 22, 2022 at 9:20 am
Agree with the time being incorrect. 4:07 AM and nothing from the utility company. No updates and it’s now going on 5 hours!
Registered user
College Terrace
on Aug 22, 2022 at 9:56 am
Registered user
on Aug 22, 2022 at 9:56 am
This underscores the importance of many things: 1) doing all that can be done to bolster our electrical grid - it will be significantly more difficult to convince people that going "all electric" is the way to go if the grid is unreliable; 2) speeding up the process for activating solar - it doesn't do much good for homes to have the panels and the batteries if the final step with the city remains in a long queue; and 3) pressuring PG&E or the PUC to underground power lines so that power isn't deliberately shut off during wind storms and fires - the State has a huge budget surplus and undergrounding has to be cheaper and far, far better for the environment than repeatedly fighting fires and dealing with the toxic aftermath and rebuilding.
Registered user
digital editor of Palo Alto Online
on Aug 22, 2022 at 10:13 am
Registered user
on Aug 22, 2022 at 10:13 am
@Bystander We updated the article with the outage's start time after getting in touch with the Utilities Department.
Registered user
Palo Verde
on Aug 22, 2022 at 10:16 am
Registered user
on Aug 22, 2022 at 10:16 am
If you log onto Web Link they make no mention of Palo Verde, but if you click on the outage map you can see that much of Palo Alto is/was affected, including some of the 94303 zip code.
Phyllis
Registered user
University South
on Aug 22, 2022 at 11:18 am
Registered user
on Aug 22, 2022 at 11:18 am
Our power didn’t come back on until 10:30. Additionally, our power lines are underground and still still were affected.
Registered user
Embarcadero Oaks/Leland
on Aug 22, 2022 at 11:33 am
Registered user
on Aug 22, 2022 at 11:33 am
Our lines are underground, too, and we were still out.
One of CPAU's Twitter reports said a bird on a transformer!! Really, a bird?
So, how about those refunds for all those outages??
Registered user
University South
on Aug 22, 2022 at 12:36 pm
Registered user
on Aug 22, 2022 at 12:36 pm
I still don’t have power!!!!
Registered user
Embarcadero Oaks/Leland
on Aug 22, 2022 at 12:40 pm
Registered user
on Aug 22, 2022 at 12:40 pm
Please change your headline from "hundreds of customers" to "THOUSANDS of customers" since the CPAU and PAPD alerts said 3,200 customers lost power. Big difference.
Registered user
Midtown
on Aug 22, 2022 at 12:41 pm
Registered user
on Aug 22, 2022 at 12:41 pm
The article and especially the outage map do not accurately reflect my experience near Colorado and Louis. My lights -- and more importantly, my FAN -- went off suddenly just past 4 AM (well before 4:15), and turned back on just before 6 AM. It was impossible to sleep in a stuffy home without a fan, so I was tossing & turning the whole time.
It is dismaying that the start time & outage map provided by PA Utilities are so inaccurate, leaving out most of Midtown. Were there separate outages, or is Utilities trying to minimize the reach and duration of one?
Registered user
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Aug 22, 2022 at 12:46 pm
Registered user
on Aug 22, 2022 at 12:46 pm
Seems the problem was with a stretch of underground lines.
Some above commenters may want to reconsider their assumptions.
Registered user
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Aug 22, 2022 at 12:59 pm
Registered user
on Aug 22, 2022 at 12:59 pm
Thanks for the update an corrections.
It seems that if this indeed did happen underground, it also affected areas that has overhead wiring.
This is obviously a bigger outage than some of the more recent ones experienced around town. The various timings of when the outage started makes me wonder if there was a knock on effect or simply more than one outage. Is this something that we will ever be told? Most outages are announced as the cause. When they are underground we are told transformer problems. But can we be given more information? Is it poor maintenance, old equipment, over maximum capacity (hardly seems possible due to the time), or some other problem.
For such a large outage we deserve to know more information. Thanks
Registered user
Midtown
on Aug 23, 2022 at 12:18 am
Registered user
on Aug 23, 2022 at 12:18 am
Er, you mean "MONDAY outage" , don't you, dear Weekly? The headline, article, and photo caption repeatedly say the outage was on Tuesday, but it's just early Tuesday morning now as I write this. Feeling confused....
Registered user
digital editor of Palo Alto Online
on Aug 25, 2022 at 7:39 am
Registered user
on Aug 25, 2022 at 7:39 am
@JeremyErman Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. The article has been updated with the correct day.