Power restored to 19,500 customers on Monterey Peninsula after damaged equipment found at substation

MONTEREY, Calif. (KION-TV) UPDATE July 21, 2022, at 1:00 p.m.-- PG&E says as of 12:23 p.m. they have restored power over 19,500 customers.

Approximately 1,500 are still without power. Full restoration is expected this afternoon.

More than 21,000 without power on Monterey Peninsula after damaged equipment found at substation

Thousands of people on the Central Coast are waking up without power this morning.

According to PG&E, 21,163 people have lost power in cities including Monterey, Pacific Grove, Seaside, Sand City, Del Rey Oaks, and other parts of Monterey County.

PG&E said at around 5:30 a.m., customers lost power after a problem was detected at PG&E's Del Monte Substation in Monterey. Damaged electric equipment was found at the substation.

PG&E added in a statement, "The safety of our customers and the communities we are privileged to serve is our most important responsibility."

PG&E is working on repairs, and as of 7:19 a.m., over 800 customers have had power restored, according to them.

"We will continue analyzing grid operations to safely reconnect more customers to the grid," said PG&E. "We apologize for the inconvenience and remain focused on restoring power to our customers as quickly as possible."

The full PG&E outage map can be found here: https://pgealerts.alerts.pge.com/outages/map/

Street lights in Monterey were seen Thursday morning with the lights out and temporary stop signs have been placed in the streets.

PG&E says repair crews are on-site working to restore power. It's expected to be restored by 12:00 p.m. Thursday.

In Santa Cruz County, the city of Scotts Valley is also dealing with power outages. According to PG&E an assessment crew is en route to the outage and an estimated restoration is around 10:00 a.m. Thursday.

Reminder: If you see traffic lights without power be sure when approaching those lights to follow the same rules you would when approaching a stop sign.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.