What is a circuit and how are they selected for rolling blackouts?
• A circuit is an underground or overhead electrical line that supplies power to a combination of residential and/or commercial customer groups within a given geographical area. Most of PWP’s circuits are subject to the rotating outages. • Each group is made up of a number of circuits with approximately 3 megawatts of electrical usage per group. Each circuit generally serves between 800 and 2,000 customers. • Under the CPUC’s regulations, only those circuits that serve specifically designated classes of customers that provide critical public health, safety, and security services (such as hospitals, fire and police stations) are exempted from these outages. All remaining circuits are arranged into groups that represent all customer types (residential, commercial and industrial).
