SDG&E crews are back home after spending a week in the storm zone in Northern California helping Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) get back up and running.
On Thursday, Jan. 5, after severe storms began rolling through PG&E territory, which consists of nearly 16 million people, SDG&E crews were sent to fulfill a Mutual Assistance request asking for immediate help to restore power. “Upon our arrival, PG&E expressed gratitude and quickly began distributing work to available crews,” said Matthew Soares, SDG&E Construction & Operations Manager. “Much of our work consisted of picking up spans of overhead primary conductor, repairing cross arms, and conducting pole replacement work.”
The brunt of the atmospheric river storm hit Wednesday, Jan. 4, bringing with it 100 mph wind gusts and over 5 inches of rain, which came after a series of storms had already saturated the soil contributing to damage in the area. PG&E reported having over a million customers without power at the peak of the power outages. “While working to restore power, our teams were approached by PG&E customers expressing their appreciation and thanking our crews for driving up from San Diego to help during their time of need.”
Other crews from Southern California Edison, Oregon, New Mexico, Utah, and Washington also joined the relief efforts.
“Our SDG&E crews were comprised of four working foremen, 16 linemen, two construction managers, four electric supervisors, and one fleet supervisor which made organization and coordination extremely efficient,” said Soares. “Our equipment operations team also aided by bringing up digging equipment and other materials.”
On PG&E’s website Janisse Quiñones, PG&E’s Senior Vice President of Electric Operations, stated, “I’d like to recognize the thousands of dedicated professionals who tirelessly helped to get the lights back on for our hometowns.”
Soares explains that over the years a solid partnership between the two utilities has been formed. “In fact, over the past few Mutual Assistance deployments, lasting relationships with some members of the crews have been developed.”
