PG&E: Transformers in Bay Area can’t always cope with heat waves

Excerpt:

Transformers can be particularly vulnerable, especially the equipment located in cooler areas that typically aren’t prone to vicious heat waves that cause temperatures to soar to 100 degrees or even higher. “When the temperatures are too hot, transformers in areas that are usually cooler can’t always handle unusually hot weather,” Smith said.

The transformer situation underscores the challenges that confront a utility whose service territories include foggy coastal areas, some of the nation’s largest cities, farmlands, mountains, deserts, foothills and interior valleys whose temperatures can gyrate over the course of a few months.

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