Jeremy,

Well-written and well-researched article. We have experienced at least three fairly long electrical service outages thus far this year. We are fortunate to have a 3Kw gasoline engine-driven generator (that we have to use with our travel trailer). It is a hassle to string extension cords to keep the basic stuff energized, but I can imagine how this kind of service interruption affects people whose very lives depend their electricity being on all the time, and do not have a backup.
My personal belief is that PG&E may be skimping on the scheduled maintenance of their outside plant and the replacement of components before they reach their end of life. As a company, having had immense unplanned expenses associated with the recent wildfires and their liability for same it may make sense for them to be running stuff until it fails. The Town of Danville needs to step up and make sure PG&E takes care of their customers.

While not a fan of PG&E it should be noted that East Bay Mud also has ignored proper maintenance over the years and then is planning to hit consumers with much higher costs to cover activities that should have been budgeted over the years.
Also note that the push for urbanization of communities with high density housing puts a strain on our infrastructure. Plus the push for electric cars and electric cooktops, water heaters, furnaces, etc strains our existing infrastructure
I am not giving a free pass to PG&E but blame also should be placed on Sacramento and some of our local leadership. Just my opinion.

To Parent & Voter:
All our "Public Utilities" are in the same boat! PG&E, Central San, EBMUD and now Republic Services, are poor service providers and it's largely because they are being forced to knuckle under to Sacramento and the loony tunes up there who are trying to pass for "leaders." All of the PU's perennially have their hands in our pockets to fund things that are usually detrimental to our interests. And if you read their proposals, often you find that a major cost they want to cover is improvements to their own pensions.
You can't run public utilities to serve 40 million people with an infrastructure that hasn't been improved since California had only $20 million residents. EBMUD said that now we're once again awash in water, they were going to lower rates, but my bill is the same as it was last year for about the same usage.
We own another home in Carmel. Several years ago, PG&E had a citywide program to "line" all their gas distribution lines because they are very old and were leaking. I showed up one day to find crews, without my permission preparing to move our gas meter, which was under a kitchen window, to a spot where it would block an access stairway. I told them that they could not make the move. The issue was that it couldn't be under a window that opened (mind you the house was built in 1940 and the meter had always been there). So the supervisor was called and he agreed the move was inappropriate. They would "fix" the problem by putting an extension on the gas regulator vent. That was four years ago, but they've never come back to put in the vent. Oh, and during their "project" they managed to actually blow up a home, and as a consequence of the follow-on lawsuit, agreed to pave most of the streets in Carmel that they had dug up, rather than just patching over their ditches. Go Figure!

I've installed solar, a Tesla Powerwall and Generac generator since we have essentially become a third-world State. The Tesla system tracks outages showing that the power has gone out for various periods of time 30+ times since I had the system installed in 2019 including one outage that lasted for three days!

Excellent old school journalism-great job Jeremy!

I fully understand when the power goes out during an extreme storm, or a car hits a power pole, but in 2023 we have had repeated loss of power for hours for no good reason. I applaud you Jeremy for writing an objective, well researched, article that serves the public good. No political ideology or ax to grind, as PG & E's horrible service affects everyone, and will only get worse when the weather gets worse, unless the pressure is put on PG & E.

PG & E has always put their shareholders above the public safety, so we need our political leaders to come up with ways that affect their shareholders, and make them demand better service from the company.

How about during the upcoming Town Council meeting with PG & E, we get them to agree to a policy where if a household or business in Danville loses power more than once a month, the household or business gets an automatic $100 rebate on next month's bill? No more useless rhetoric from PG & E about excuses for the power routinely going out, hold them financially accountable to the public they allegedly serve. How about it Danville town council members, are you ready to speak up for your constituents during this meeting, and actually hold PG & E financially responsible for their malfeasance?

To all interested parties

You should go on the web and read how our Governor has bailed out PG&E. I won't post any articles because this news source would probably take it down, but there are reputable sources ( like ABC Channel 7) who have written about the way Newsom bailed PG&E out after all the fires it caused, using taxpayer dollars to do so. So we pay both ways.