Downtown San Jose residents experienced power outages Tuesday night as Pacific Gas and Electric company (PG&E) continues to institute rotating outages throughout the city everyday this week, according to a San Jose State campuswide email from Vincent Del Casino Jr., provost and senior vice president of Academic Affairs and Patrick Day, vice president of Student Affairs.
The outage happened downtown around 7:40 p.m. and will proceed lasting one to two hours from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. for the rest of the week.
PG&E stated on their website that because high temperatures threaten the electric system, it is necessary to turn off electricity in the interest of safety, otherwise known as a Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS).
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo stated he confirmed the company’s faulty infrastructure is to blame for extended outages and “they must also be held accountable for their continued failure to live up to their responsibilities,”according to an Aug. 17 San Jose Spotlight article.
Even though PG&E stated it recognizes the effects outages could have in the middle of stay-at-home orders and have made the events “smaller in size, shorter in length and smarter for [their] customers,” many San Jose residents are testifying to PG&E’s failure.
Mariana Garcia Serrato, a San Jose resident, tweeted on Aug. 17 to California Governor Gavin Newsom that the neighborhood of Silverleaf in San Jose went 62 hours without power, which she later tweeted lasted an additional three hours.
As a STEM Public Based Learning (PBL) educator, Garcia Serrato also said that virtual classrooms were canceled because even though her site had power, 165 of her students were absent because of PG&E’s “negligence.”
PG&E stated on Twitter that its customers should start conserving energy, such as turning off unneeded lights, using less of major appliances and keeping an air conditioning at 78 degrees or higher, everyday this week.
According to the PG&E website, residents can sign up for PSPS ZIP code alerts to know the latest on public power outages.
