By Stephanie Magallon

Amid a historic heat wave in September 2022, two San Jose hospitals suffered through the chaos of hours-long power outages. One hospital, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, was left in the dark and forced to move patients when its backup generator failed. PG&E recognized the severity of the situation and took an all-hands approach to restore service as quickly as possible and improve reliability in the long run.

Both Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and O'Connor Hospital are served by the El Patio Substation in San Jose, where high-voltage electricity is converted to lower-voltage power for homes and businesses. That both hospitals were connected to the same circuit at the El Patio Substation, meant both of those critical facilities lost power at the same time during storm-related equipment failures.

A plan to separate the hospitals' power source, the El Patio Feeder Swap Project, was devised and efficiently executed. "It was a relatively small project with a large impact," said PG&E Project Manager Travis Muccigrosso-White. "Our crews trenched and installed new cable within the El Patio Substation to reroute our electric facilities and separate the two hospitals from being on the same feeder."

The swap means improved reliability by reducing the likelihood of both hospitals experiencing outages at the same time. "It essentially helps balance the load on our distribution system that would otherwise have the potential to overload during a heat event or when all of the attached customers are drawing a significant amount of power," said Muccigrosso-White.

The project was completed on Oct. 5, 2023, to protect both hospitals and our customers before winter storms arrive. "The work we did with the hospitals is one of many initiatives PGE is taking in the San Jose area to protect our most critical facilities and ensure customer reliability," said PG&E's Vice President in the South Bay and Central Coast Region, Teresa Alvarado.

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Pacific Gas and Electric Company published this content on 27 November 2023 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 27 November 2023 18:10:51 UTC.