Emergency Declaration

As of November 10th ———————————

November Outage Sparks A Response

Since Tuesday, Treasure Island has experienced long periods of power outages due to an equipment failure at the Port of Oakland, where the Island’s power is routed from. All residents and businesses are severely impacted.

Since then, backup generators have been providing power. Last night at midnight, the generators failed and residents have been without power since midnight. City agencies have formed an emergency coordination team to provide interim and long term solutions to this incident.

The following actions are being taken:

1. Emergency Mutual Aid has been requested to state and regional partners to provide replacement parts as soon as possible

2. Emergency backup crews are en route from Modesto to the Port of Oakland to fix the underlying cause

3. PUC is simultaneously attempting to repair the broken generator and awaiting delivery of a backup generator

4. TIDA is setting up community charging stations near residential areas

Fuel Shortage for Residents

Treasure and Yerba Buena islands lost power from Davis Substation, a Port of Oakland asset, about 2:30PM yesterday. The islands went on generator power while electricians continue to troubleshoot the needed repairs. The generators run off of diesel fuel. To conserve fuel, generators were shut down last night between 12-5AM. Generators were restarted at 5AM as planned. The Generator at YBI has sufficient fuel; however, the generator at Treasure Island has insufficient fuel for continuous power. TI will experience another outage this morning and power will remain out until refueling is concluded. We are unable to refuel the generators until sometime after 10:30AM. Notifications are going out to keep people informed. Lineworkers are narrowing in on the remaining problem with the electrical grid. We will continue to keep you updated.

TIDA Working to Modify Gymnasium

I can let you know that TIDA is currently in the process of working to modify Treasure Island Gymnasium with secondary electrical service connections so that it’s electrical service can be switched from grid power to a back-up generator, which will allow for the City to stand-up the Gymnasium as a respite location for residents during an extended on-Island power outage, even if there is a short or other damage inside the TI Distribution System itself (which is the limiting factor when considering Island-wide redundancy during an outage).  

This temporary service to the Gym would be provided by a generator in order to assure any necessary length of run time and use of the building for larger loads (such as portable heaters and charging of powered medical devices).   We would need to make sure that there’s consistent energy transmission into the building in such an event, and a fueled generator assures that reliability if the outage is of extended duration.

As you can imagine, standing up such a support facility can take up to several hours, considering the City’s mustering of staff, equipment and supplies necessary to activate such a resource at TI Gym.  An extended on-Island outage, such as last Presidents Day, when we know there is going to be a multi-hour outage period, is the scenario for this Gym activation, as opposed to some of our more standard outages causes, such as damaged equipment, which are usually resolved in a few hours time.   Nonetheless, we do see it as another step in improvement and supporting the Island community during such power outage incidents.

We will be keeping the community posted on this work over the next several months, and we are already engaged with the City’s Dept of Public Health and Human Services Agency in analyzing and understanding the various loads associated with powered-medical devices, as assuring a location for redundant charging of residents medical-devices during an extended on-Island outages is a primary focus of such a respite facility.  Your comment/suggestion about the cell sites is a good one as well, we will be reaching out to the cellular carriers with on-Island cell sites to understand what their existing back-up capacity is, and advocating for them to consider improvements or upgrades to add or extend their existing back-up power for this infrastructure.  

 TIDA will also be distributing a message to the community today regarding our resiliency with regards to PG&E PSPS; the good news with regards to that is as PSPS impacts transmission from off-Island, we will respond to any PSPS impacts to the Island in the East Bay by activating the on-Island primary generators which will power the entire TI/YBI Distribution System and assure the Island remains energized.

Lastly, PUC asked me to clarify for you their prior statement in your communications with Emily Lam regarding their experience and prior projects with Tesla.  It turns out PUC and TIDA have worked together on the San Francisco mainland on charging stations, not utility-grid-level installations or projects.  Apologies for any confusion on that.  As I pointed out, the White Paper discusses the limitations on PV/battery back-up at a grid-level when applying the concept to the Island grid. 

 Context Peter Summerville Treasure Island Development Authority (415) 274-0665 for more info Peter.Summerville@sfgov.org

White Paper Provides Answers

SF PUC white paper discussing the concept of photovoltaic systems for energy collection/transmission, as well as battery backup adaptation of PV system, applied at both a grid level and an individual facility level.

What we have learned from this white paper, when applied specifically to the TI/YBI Distribution System, is that a PV/battery system at a grid level would unfortunately not allow for additional reliability or redundancy Island-wide as the causes of unplanned all-Island power outages are on the Distribution System (equipment failures, bird strikes of HV lines, weather damage to HV lines/poles, etc).  As these causes are not tied to transmission into the TI/YBI Distribution System, a grid-level PV/battery system intended to provide a backup source of electric transmission into the Distribution System would still be rendered moot on a shorted Distribution System.  The Island does have two primary on-Island generators that provide alternate transmission into the Distribution System when there is a transmission-level interruption from the primary transmission source at the Port of Oakland, most recently these generators served that purpose this past August during daylong maintenance work at Port of Oakland.  These generators also do not function to provide alternate resiliency to the Island Distribution if the outage cause is on the Distribution System itself.     (This above statement should be considered mostly false as this is what just happened on November 5th batteries and solar would stop the following form happening!)

“ Treasure and Yerba Buena islands lost power from Davis Substation, a Port of Oakland asset, about 2:30PM yesterday. The islands went on generator power while electricians continue to troubleshoot the needed repairs. The generators run off of diesel fuel. To conserve fuel, generators were shut down last night between 12-5AM. Generators were restarted at 5AM as planned. The Generator at YBI has sufficient fuel; however, the generator at Treasure Island has insufficient fuel for continuous power. TI will experience another outage this morning and power will remain out until refueling is concluded. We are unable to refuel the generators until sometime after 10:30AM. Notifications are going out to keep people informed. Lineworkers are narrowing in on the remaining problem with the electrical grid. We will continue to keep you updated.”

 The white paper also speaks to building-level applicability of combination PV/battery or standalone battery back-up systems, such as the Tesla “Powerwall”.  This is a viable option for individual buildings, and was the general model employed in Puerto Rico to re-energize hospitals and other critical facilities on an emergency basis after Hurricane Maria.  In speaking with SFPUC Power, individual installations of Powerwalls or similar products from other manufacturers can happen in a manner that would not cause adverse impacts on the existing Island grid.

 If Island residents or households are interested in pursuing installation of Powerwall or similar systems to allow additional resiliency for their residence during Island-wide outages, they may contact their residential property manager to begin the process as a requested Modification to Residential Unit.  As with any other proposed Unit Modification, costs would need to be borne by the requesting resident/household and all applicable City project reviews/approvals, including those by Department of Building Inspection related to the building electrical system modifications, must be met, along with any additional requirements or direction issued by the residential property manager.

 Please feel free to let us know if there are any questions at this time, particularly on the White Paper contents, as TIDA and PUC are happy to discuss further.

 Thank you.

Peter Summerville Treasure Island Development Authority Peter.Summerville@sfgov.org

Response from Matt Haneys Office

“in response to the website and inquiry from Barklee, we’ve asked PUC Power to put together a White Paper on the potential applicability of micro-grid technology in supporting the Island during service interruptions.  Considering the existing Island distribution system and the number of currently occupied buildings on-Island.

The Puerto Rico model was installation of backup batteries at a series of individual critical facilities.  The residents proposal seems to be more of an all-encompassing “master battery power source” to stand the entire Island grid back up during an on-Island unplanned outage.    

Will definitely share the PUCs analysis with you once it’s completed, and I imagine we’ll share it with the community and interested residents as well.”