BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET)– A blackout in central Bakersfield Sunday took power from over 17,000 PG&E customers. The blackout led to questions about PG&E infrastructure, while the company says it’s the heat, others say it’s the government.

The company’s reason for the outage was a switch failure at a substation, due to the severe heat. Temperatures hit a high of 102 degrees on Sunday.

An advocate for taxpayer’s electric bills says it’s part of a larger issue caused by the state government.

Michael Turnipseed, Executive Director of the Kern County Taxpayers Association a nonprofit that works with utility rates.

Turnipseed says that the outage is a symptom of an underlying problem, “It’s like any system, you have to maintain it, but if you’re not given the resources in your budget by the state, because the state determines their budget.”

The California Public Utilities Commission determines the budget of PG&E since it is a public utility, Turnipseed says more money is going to green energy and not enough going into maintenance.

“They add so much stuff to it that’s not about utilities, there’s a lot of social programs, there’s a lot of innuendos,” said Turnipseed. “Their budget process is extremely complicated, and most of the hearings are really not about electricity.”

Jeff Smith, A PG&E spokesperson, pushed back on this theory, “We work with the CPUC on our general rate cases every three years to, how the money is allocated and where it’s going to go. Obviously it’s critically important to us to our equipment is maintained, not just for reliability reasons but also for safety reasons.”

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You can prepare for outages by keeping a charged cellphone, keeping a flashlight, protecting electronic equipment with surge suppressors, and keeping your refrigerator and freezer door closed to maintain perishable food.

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