SDG&E outages

SDG&E RESTORES POWER IN SOME AREAS, OTHERS STILL IN THE DARK. MORE OUTAGES POSSIBLE, UTILITY WARNS

Update 5:15 p.m. -- Power has been restored to all customers, according to the SDG&E website.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo by Fran Materra, via Facebook: Thanksgiving by lanternlight in Potrero

November 26, 2021 (San Diego’s East County) – An estimated 2,520 SDG&E customers remain in the dark on Black Friday due to power-shut offs amid a red flag warning for high fire danger. About half the communities originally blacked out have power restored, but these areas remain without power:  Alpine, Boulevard, the Campo reservation, Descanso, Jamul, Potrero, the Viejas Reservation, and Warner Springs.

More than 50,000 customers remain at risk of outages yet to come.  View the list of communities at risk at https://www.sdge.com/psps-dashboard. SDG&E has set up community resource centers where residents without power can go to recharge devices, pickup ice, water, snacks and more. Find the closest CRC at SDG&E’s CRC look-up tool.

East County residents posted comments and complaints on social media regarding the outages. While some railed against SDG&E for cutting power on a holiday, others pre-cooked foods early, grateful for the warnings.  Others dined out at restaurants, brought in hot meals, or headed to relatives homes’ outside the blacked-out areas. Some also voiced thanks that no homes were lost to wildfires.


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STRONG SANTA ANA WINDS TO ROAR INTO REGION

By Miriam Raftery

January 15, 2021 (San Diego) – Santa Ana winds are forecast to roar into our region, bringing high fire danger Friday and Saturday along with soaring temperatures up to 20 degrees above  normal.

SDG&E has announced possible public safety power shutoffs to more than 11,000 customers across San Diego County’s mountain and rural communities. For updates, see the outage page at www.SDGE.com.

The National Weather Service warns that “strong, damaging Santa Ana winds” are expected to again be likely Monday through Wednesday—along with likely high fire danger if humidity remains low.


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SDG&E OPENS RESOURCE CENTERS AFTER CUTTING POWER TO 73,000 CUSTOMERS

By Miriam Raftery

December 3, 2020 (San Diego's East County) -- SDG&E announced this morning that is has cut power to over 73,000 customers due to high winds and fire danger. The utility also announced,  that at 8 a.m. it will open 10 Community Resource Centers  at local libraries or community centers to provide support to those affected by Public Safety Power Shutoffs. The ceners will have water, snacks, charging stations for mobile phones and other devices, and in some areas, water trucks for livestock. (Bring your own vessel to transport water).

For locations of Community Resource Centers and updates on outages in your community, visit http://sdge.com/ready For safety, CDC guidelines will be enforced.

SDG&E reports record wind speeds recorded at its weather stations including gusts up to 94 miles per hour.


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POWER OUTAGES ACROSS EAST COUNTY COULD LAST DAYS AMID HIGH WINDS, RED FLAG WARNING

East County Wildfire & Emergency Alerts

December 2, 2020 (San Diego’s East County) – SDG&E has shut off power to 22,000 homes tonight as winds up to 76 miles per hour have been recorded in parts of East County.  A red flag warning is in effect starting tonight through Saturday at 10 p.m. for inland valleys and mountains countywide due to low humidity and strong winds with gusts of 60 miles per hour or more.

SDG&E earlier  warned 88,700 customers of potential for prolonged public safety shutoffs that could last several days. Tonight, power has been shut off to thousands of residents in areas that include Alpine, Boulevard, Campo, Deerhorn Valley, Dehesa, Descanso, Jacumba, Jamul, Julian, Pine Valley, Potrero, Ramona, Rancho San Diego, Spring Valley, Valley Center, Warner Springs, Wynola and more. Power could be off through Sunday or Monday, according to SDG&E.

Brian D’Agostino, SDG&E’s director of fire science and climate adaptation, will provide a video briefing daily before 3 p.m. for the duration of the weather event. These video briefings will be available on SDG&E’s YouTube channel. The link to today’s briefing is available here. SDG&E will also be posting hourly updates on its NewsCenter at sdgenews.com, as needed.


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EIGHT SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO CLOSE THURSDAY DUE TO POWER OUTAGES

Source: County News Service

 

October 30, 2019 (San Diego’s East County) -- The San Diego County Office of Education reports that because San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) has activated a public safety power shutoff in certain parts of the county, schools in the following school districts will be closed on Halloween this Thursday, October 31: 

 

  • Dehesa School District
  • Julian Union High School District
  • Julian Union School District
  • Mountain Empire Unified School District
  • Rancho Santa Fe School District
  • Spencer Valley School District
  • Vallecitos School District 
  • Valley Center-Pauma Unified School District

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SDG&E EXPANDS POTENTIAL OUTAGE AREAS; SOME CUSTOMERS COMPLAIN OF ERRATIC NOTIFICATIONS

By Miriam Raftery

 

Update October 24:  As of 8 a.m. Thursday, power is shut off for 431 people in Dehesa, Alpine, Rancho Palo Verde, Santa Ysabel, Wynola, Pine Hills, East Descanso, Green Valley Falls, Cuyamaca, Viejas, West Descanso, Boulder Creek, Live Oak Springs, Boulevard, Jacumba, Japatul Valley, Buckman Springs, Morena Village. Resource centers have been opened in Julian and Descanso; scroll down for details.

October 23, 2019 (San Diego’s East County) – SDG&E is warning of a new round of potential power-shut offs that could affect up to 23,944 customers, with a red flag warning from 5 a.m. Thursday through 5 p.m. Friday evening.

The areas that could be impacted are Alpine, Barona, Barrett Lake, Boulevard, Campo, Cuyamaca, Descanso, East Poway, East Valley Center, Julian, Mesa Grande, Mount Laguna, Palomar Mountain, Pine Valley, Potrero, Ramona, Rancho Bernardo (portions), Santa Ysabel, Shelter Valley, Viejas and Warner Springs.

The utility’s site states that it makes several efforts to notify ratepayers prior to shutoffs. In many cases the system worked to provide customers with time to prepare for outages.  However, some rural residents have posted complaints on social media stating that they received repeated warnings of shut-offs that never occurred, and later had power shut-off with no warning.


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SDG&E OPENS RESOURCE CENTER IN DESCANSO FOR RESIDENTS WITHOUT POWER

 

Update: A second resource center has been opened at the Golden Acorn Casino in Campo.

395 customers of SDG&E are currently without power; outages could impact up to 17,771, the utility warns

October 11, 2019 (Descanso) -- San Diego Gas & Electric will open a Community Resource Center today, Friday, October 11 at 8:00 a.m. in Descanso, CA due to power outages the company initiated during the Santa Ana wind event.  Water and snacks will be available and residents can charge devices, as well as get up-to-date information about power outages at the Center.

Community Resource Center location: Descanso Public Library (9545 River Drive, Descanso, CA 91916) 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

Additional resouce centers may open if the outage area is extended.


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Support community news in the public interest! As nonprofit news, we rely on donations from the public to fund our reporting -- not special interests. Please donate to sustain East County Magazine's local reporting and/or wildfire alerts at https://www.eastcountymedia.org/donate to help us keep people safe and informed across our region.

SDG&E SHUTS OFF POWER ACROSS BACKCOUNTRY DURING RED FLAG WARNING, SPARKING MORE ANGRY RESPONSES FROM RESIDENTS

 

 

 

By Miriam Raftery

January 28, 2018 (San Diego’s East County) – With a red flag warning in effect due to high fire danger and gusty Santa Ana winds forecast through Monday, San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E) has once again shut off power to many rural and mountain communities.  An outage map curiously labels these as “unplanned outages” even though clicking on communities shown in the SDG&E outages map reveals a message stating that in most of the current outages, “We’ve shut off the power for safety.” 

Power went off last night (Saturday evening) and is not slated for restoration until mid-to-late afternoon on Monday.

The power is presently out in many areas including the East County communitise Boulevard, Live Oak Springs, Descanso, Pine Valley, Alpine, Pine Hills, Santa Ysabel and surrounding communities, affecting thousands of customers. Portions of North County including Valley Center and the Pauma area are also without power.


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ASSEMBLY CANDIDATE JAMES ELIA SUPPORTS INVESTIGATION OF OUTAGES PLANNED BY SDG&E

 

By Miriam Raftery

January 9, 2018 (San Diego’s East County) – 71st Assembly candidate James Elia is speaking to support an investigation into the SDG&E planned power outages in December that left many thousands of residents across the county without electricity, in some cases for a full week.


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SUPERVISOR JACOB CALLS FOR CPUC INVESTIGATION INTO SDG&E POWER SHUT-OFFS; CPUC CONFIRMS IT WILL INVESTIGATE INTENTIONAL OUTAGES

 

By Miriam Raftery

Updated September 6, 2018 with response from SDG&E

September 4, 2018 (San Diego's East County) -- Supervisor Dianne Jacob has sent a letter to California Public Utilities Chairman Michael Picker requesting a formal investigation and independent review by the agency into  San Diego Gas & Electric’s decision to shut off power to thousands of San Diego County residents during recent Santa Ana winds, ostensibly to prevent power lines from sparking fires. 

In an email to ECM, a CPUC spokesman has confirmed that the regulatory agency will conduct an investigation into the intentional outages.


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SDG&E RESPONDS TO OUTAGE CONCERNS, BUT LEGISLATORS HUESO AND VOEPEL IGNORE INQUIRIES

 

 

By Miriam Raftery

Photo by Dennis Richardson

December 19, 2017 (San Diego’s East County) – SDG&E has responded to our inquiry seeking answers to questions raised by concerned readers during planned outages to 17,000 SDG&E customers due to last week’s high winds, which ECM reported on here and here.

Helen Gao,  communications manager for Sempra Energy,  parent company of SDG&E,  sent the following reply to our questions on topics including loss claims, factors that determine when to shut off power, people with medical needs, support for residents during outages in need of water and communications, adjusting bills to eliminate charges during outages, and what might be done in communities with repeated outages to reduce or eliminate that need in the future.

Below is her response in full, followed by comments from rural residents with contrasting opinions on the outages:


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SDG&E SHUTS POWER OFF TO 1,326 CUSTOMERS: MAY BE DOWN FOR DAYS

 

By Miriam Raftery

December 6, 2017 (San Diego’s East County) – Tonight SDG&E has shut off power due many areas across East County and North County due to “an extreme weather event with high winds and dry conditions,” according to SDG&E’s website, which warns, “Current conditions indicate that power may remain out for several days before it can be safely restored. If your power is out, please be sure you have adequate emergency supplies on hand for an extended period of time and check here for the most current information on expected restoration times.”

The action comes just days after the California Public Utilities Commission ruled that SDG&E cannot bill ratepayers for its uninsured losses from the 2007 firestorms, when state regulators found its power lines responsible for three major fires.


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UNDERGROUND CABLE CAUSED SANTEE OUTAGE

SDG&E now offers an “outage ap” for Smart Phone users

November 5, 2012 (Santee) – An “underground cable failure” caused a power outage November 1 that left 1,285 temporarily in the dark, SDG&E spokesperson Amber Albrecht has informed ECM.


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ATTORNEY TO MEET WITH ALPINE BUSINESS OWNERS TONIGHT FOR POTENTIAL LAWSUIT OVER POWERLINK


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SDG&E: POWER OUTAGES THURSDAY WERE UNPLANNED, NOT INTENTIONAL SHUT-OFFS

November 4, 2011 (San Diego's East County) -- Yesterday, ECM reported that some rural residents were left without power during a red flag alert, after receiving warnings from SDG&E that the utility might shut down power due to high fire-risk conditions.

Today, however, SDG&E has denied that power shut-offs impacting an esteimated 5,200 customers was intentional.


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Support community news in the public interest! As nonprofit news, we rely on donations from the public to fund our reporting -- not special interests. Please donate to sustain East County Magazine's local reporting and/or wildfire alerts at https://www.eastcountymedia.org/donate to help us keep people safe and informed across our region.