Rolling blackouts hit Palo Alto, Redwood City

The Palo Alto Utilities Department's outage map as of 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 6.

By the Daily Post staff

Update, 7:50 p.m. — Power has been restored to both Palo Alto and Redwood City. The lights came back on in Palo Alto at 7:02 p.m. and at 7:25 in Redwood City.

Original story, 6:33 p.m. — Over 3,000 homes and businesses are without power as the state requires PG&E and the city of Palo Alto to use less electricity amid a prolonged and record-breaking heat wave.

More than 1,900 customers in Midtown, Old Palo Alto and the Stanford Research Park won’t have power until about 9 p.m., the Palo Alto Utilities Department said. 

In Redwood City, between 500 and 5,000 customers are without power in neighborhoods just north of Whipple Avenue and west of El Camino Real. PG&E expects power to be restored there around 11 p.m.

The number of customers represents bill payers only, so the number of people impacted is higher..

The California Independent System Operator, which oversees the state’s power grid,  has warned of rolling blackouts until 9 tonight to avoid a longer-lasting outage.

Tonight’s peak electricity demand is forecasted at more than 52,000 megawatts — a new all-time high for the grid and more than the state can supply, the system operator said in a statement.

3 Comments

  1. If you want everyone to have power, turn your thermostat up so there’s less draw on the electrical grid. Don’t blame politicians for something that’s controllable by all of us.

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