THE STRONG WINDS ON MONDAY AFTERNOON CAUSED A NUMBER OF PROBLEMS, NOT THE LEAST OF WHICH WAS TREES FALLING INTO POWER LINES. ABOVE, A CEDAR TREE TOPPLED, TAKING DOWN POWER LINES IN FRONT OF MERCY AMBULANCE’S HEADQUARTERS. THERE WERE MANY OTHER REPORTS OF SIMILAR PROBLEMS, INCLUDING A TREE THAT FELL INTO A HOUSE IN PONDEROSA BASIN. GAZETTE PHOTO BY DAN TUCKER The lights went out again in Mariposa County last Friday, but this time, it was planned. The utility shut off power to Mariposa County to complete repairs found after the Jan. 12 outage that kept the county in the dark all night.

PG&E spokesperson Nicole Liebelt said the company worked to conduct a thorough investigation as to the cause of last Tuesday's outage to nearly all of Mariposa County. “In conducting the investigation, we identified an additional location that was in need of proactive repairs in order to avoid an unplanned interruption of service,” Liebelt said.

As such, PG&E scheduled the work to be conducted on Jan. 15 and 16 from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. in order to lessen the impact and inconvenience to customers.

“We understand any interruption of service is an inconvenience, and we appreciate our customers’ patience as we work to safely make repairs,” Liebelt said last Friday afternoon.

During maintenance work performed by MID contractors at the Exchequer Powerhouse, it was determined that repairs to a transformer were necessary to return the powerhouse to service and strengthen the local transmission system.

While Merced Irrigation District owns and operates the Exchequer facility, PG&E serves customers in the area through the local transmission system. PG&E assisted MID by bringing in two additional PG&E transformers to replace the one that was being repaired to restore the powerhouse to service.

Most Mariposa County residents didn’t have to wait until 7 a.m. on Saturday to make a pot of coffee. PG&E had restored service about 4:30 a.m. As stormy weather blew through the area on Monday, there were a couple of surges and some power lines and trees down, but there were no reports of widespread outages.

The Jan. 12 outage, Liebelt said, was “open jumpers” or breaks in the transmission line. She explained that these occurences are similar to a water main break that disrupts the flow.

A local PG&E employee, however, told customers in the Mariposa office that the problem was coming from Exechequer Dam, where the main line to Mariposa County originates. Liebelt said the outage was in three locations: Bear Valley, Mariposa and Indian Flat. She did say, however, that she was not familiar with the county’s geography.

“This is not a situation related specifically to Exechequer,” Liebelt said on Jan. 13.