14,000-person outage started by squirrel?s scampering in substation

By Stephanie Swanburg

Journal Staff Writer

A power outage that left 14,415 PG&E customers without electricity, shut down traffic signals and wreaked havoc on local homes, schools and business can be blamed on a single squirrel, according to PG&E spokeswoman Linda Randle.

The animal was crawling among electric wires at a downtown Auburn substation when it created an alternate current and caused the outage, Randle said. Power interruptions caused by small animals are not uncommon.

?It happens on occasion,? she said. ?More so on a single line. What was unusual in this particular outage was that it was so large.?

Squirrels and birds cause most animal-related power outages, Randle said. There are barriers to prevent animals from interfering with the grid system, but not at all locations.

?There?s certain types of barriers that we have out at various points within our system,? she said. ?But there?s always an exposure. In this particular situation the squirrels were within the substation area and animal guarding isn?t applicable because of the type of equipment that?s there.?

Power substations control power grids in several communities, said Randle. The downtown facility controls grids for Auburn, Foresthill, Wiemar, Georgetown, Pilot Hill and Halsey.

?We were able to restore customers in Georgetown and Foresthill within the first 10 minutes,? she said. ?We made our final restorations about 10:30 a.m.?

While all communities had their power restored within 90 minutes, the lost time cost several local business money and customers. At Rowdy Randy?s gas station, the register and pumps could only be reset by a repairman, and were out longer than the power, said Ken Krieger, the station manager.

?My gas was down for about three hours,? he said. ?I pump around 600 gallons in the morning, so I?ll lose that. That?s about $900.?

The outage did not affect the sale of groceries as most early morning customers had already been in, Krieger said.

?At least it was off during the time when it wasn?t as bad as it could have been,? he said.

Business at the 76 station at the Foresthill exit of I-80 was affected as well, said Brett Mitchell, the station?s head attendant.

?It slowed down business quite a bit,? he said. ?We couldn?t do anything.?

The outage affected the gas pumps, car wash, cash register and shop computer, Mitchell said. He estimated a loss of 100 cars.

?We probably lost about $1,000 in gas and a couple of smog checks,? said station owner David Brown. ?So we lost roughly $1,500. And we were only down an hour.?

Since the power was on across the freeway in Bowman, many of the customers filled their tanks there, he said.

?The customers all seemed to understand, but what can you do,? he said. ?That doesn?t help us pay the rent.?

The Journal?s Stephanie Swanburg can be reached at stephanies@goldcountrymedia.com.