PG&E says blistering Valley heat is putting electrical equipment to the test

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- PG&E crews have all hands on deck-- 150 crews throughout the state are working to get the power back on for thousands left dreadfully hot during outages.

A cool down in the San Francisco area Tuesday has PG&E managers shifting resources to those areas with more immediate needs because of blistering heat.

"So we're able to move some of those crews into the East Bay area and some of those crews down to the Central Valley, like Fresno and Bakersfield, to respond to the extreme heat were having here," said Jeff Smith, PG&E Spokesman.

Valley residents are being urged to do all they can to conserve, to eliminate an overload and equipment failures.

Laura Smoke has five kids at home-- she always keeps her air conditioner at 80 and waits until off peak hours to do other household chores.

"The dishwasher we do not run until late at night right before we go to bed, and as far as doing laundry, we only do that early in the morning before any other, like the air conditioner or anything else is running."

Monday the biggest surge in outages in the Fresno area came around 5:00 p.m. PG&E representatives said the problem puts too much instant pressure on the system and it causes mechanical and equipment failures.

"Even if you've got brand new equipment, let's say you've got brand new tires on a race car, but that car is being driven extremely fast around the race track over and over. Those tires are going to need to be replaced very quickly because of the pressure that's being put on them because of the condition," said Smith.

Also another tip, if you have a pool that really helps during the critical hours is to run your pump overnight on a timer. These tips won't save you a ton but they will not stress the system quite as much.