Crews making progress; community supporting those in need
SMUD’s downtown substation, Station A, experienced a fire on Tuesday, December 14, causing a power outage for about 1,300 customers. Most of downtown Sacramento is served by three networks from Station A.
One of the networks suffered significant damage, and the other two were immediately de-energized to ensure public safety as they were examined and tested for fitness. Crews worked through the night to test the two de-energized networks, and at 6:35 a.m. one of the networks was re-energized. The second network was re-energized around 9:00 a.m. As a result, the power has been restored to 750 customers.
The third network suffered far more extensive damage and crews have been working 24/7 on repairs to restore power to the remaining 550 customers. Crews have made significant progress and will continue working through the day and night on the final steps. Due to the magnitude of the damage and the amount of equipment involved, as well as the tight quarters and confined workspace, we expect to return all customers to power by Friday morning.
SMUD staff have been assisting commercial and residential customers who are still impacted by the fire-related outage in many ways, from booking and paying for hotel rooms to arranging transportation for our vulnerable customers and their pets.
SMUD sincerely appreciates the outpouring of support from our community partners that are working with us to support customers and those providing assistance through their existing programs.
SMUD, the city of Sacramento and other community partners continue to work to assist and help impacted customers through this difficult time.
SMUD is actively partnering with several property managers of low income and senior citizen properties to facilitate hotel stays, food, and transportation as needed. SMUD is also closely coordinating with the city of Sacramento to provide warming centers and Paratransit to provide wheelchairs, oxygen, and other medical equipment as necessary. Examples include:
· Providing meals to our most vulnerable customers in partnership with Meals on Wheels, local restaurants and hotels.
· Facilitating the rental and safe installation of back-up generators for businesses with critical power needs.
· Coordinating with Paratransit to provide transportation, wheelchairs, oxygen and other medical equipment as necessary.
· Providing customized assistance for individual customers.
· Door-to-door health and safety checks by the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency and SMUD.
· Emergency and warming shelters have been opened by the city of Sacramento.
· Back-up generation is being offered when requested to commercial customers by SMUD.
· Individual calls to customers to offer additional, customized assistance.
The Station A fire impacted the outdoor, external equipment and infrastructure only and not the historic building immediately adjacent to the infrastructure. The historic building is mostly empty and holds only control circuits and panels. The cause of the fire is still unknown.
Further updates will be provided as necessary.
SMUD appreciates our customers’ patience as we make repairs and restore power and sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.
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Originally released at 5:38 p.m., Wednesday, December 15
SMUD’s downtown substation, Station A, experienced a fire on Tuesday, December 14, causing a power outage for about 1,300 customers. Most of downtown Sacramento is served by three networks from Station A.
One of the networks suffered significant damage, and the other two were immediately de-energized to ensure public safety as they were examined and tested for fitness. Crews worked through the night to test the two de-energized networks, and at 6:35 a.m. one of the networks was re-energized. The second network was re-energized around 9:00 a.m. As a result, the power has been restored to 750 customers.
The third network suffered far more extensive damage and crews are working 24/7 on repairs. Due to the magnitude of the damage and the amount of equipment involved as well as the tight quarters and confined workspace, we expect to return all customers to power by Friday morning.
SMUD staff have been assisting commercial and residential customers who are still impacted by the fire-related outage in many ways, from booking and paying for hotel rooms to arranging transportation for our vulnerable customers and their pets.
SMUD sincerely appreciates the outpouring of support from our community partners that are working with us to support customers and those providing assistance through their existing programs.
SMUD, the city of Sacramento and other community partners continue to work to assist and help impacted customers through this difficult time.
SMUD is actively partnering with several property managers of low-income and senior citizen properties to facilitate hotel stays, food, and transportation as needed. SMUD is also closely coordinating with the city of Sacramento to provide warming centers and Paratransit to provide wheelchairs, oxygen and other medical equipment as necessary. Examples include:
· Providing meals to our most vulnerable customers in partnership with Meals on Wheels, local restaurants and hotels.
· Facilitating the rental and safe installation of back-up generators for businesses with critical power needs.
· Coordinating with Paratransit to provide transportation, wheelchairs, oxygen and other medical equipment as necessary.
· Providing customized assistance for individual customers.
· Door-to-door health and safety checks by the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency and SMUD.
· Emergency and warming shelters have been opened by the city of Sacramento.
· Back-up generation is being offered when requested to commercial customers by SMUD.
· Individual calls to customers to offer additional, customized assistance.
The Station A fire impacted the outdoor, external equipment and infrastructure only and not the historic building immediately adjacent to the infrastructure. The historic building is mostly empty and holds only control circuits and panels. The cause of the fire is still unknown.
Further updates will be provided as necessary.
SMUD appreciates our customers’ patience as we make repairs and restore power and sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.
