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More than 775 customers were without power on Saturday night in the Downtown North neighborhood of Palo Alto, according to the city’s Utilities Department.
The outage started around 8 p.m. and affected 778 customers, who received power back shortly before midnight.
On Sunday, the Utilities Department said the outage was possibly caused by a bird that made contact with electrical conductors. The cause was later found to be a failed underground transformer, which was repaired, Palo Alto Utilities said on Monday.
The alert this morning said there was a problem with underground wiring that would take an estimated 6 hours to fix.
Given the number of outages, the increasing number of fires attributed to charges for electric cars and bikes, maybe our leaders need to focus on upgrading our grid rather than rushing to convert everyone.
If it has been repaired then we should be told roughly what caused the outage? Dead bird or squirrel might be a clue, or a balloon. Hanging branches may or may not be visible.
Is anyone keeping track of the number of outages and the causes (excuses)?
Since most power outages are caused by something that contacts the overhead hanging wires, it is high time to prevent these by putting them underground.