Community Update: PG&E Sued for Power Outage at Valero’s Benicia Refinery

Valero Refining Company - California has filed a lawsuit against Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) for unexpectedly shutting off all electricity to the Benicia Refinery on May 5, forcing an emergency shutdown. Valero’s shutdown and safety systems worked properly and averted potentially severe consequences; however, due to the damage caused by the abrupt power loss, the Refinery remained out of service for more than a month.

"We take every outage seriously and are focused on making sure something like this doesn't happen again. PG&E is sorry for the inconvenience that this outage has caused." - Amil Pal, PG&E Benicia City Council Meeting, May 16, 2017

Tesoro’s Martinez Refinery suffered a similar PG&E power outage in 2010. Though the Refinery had a full cogeneration back-up power supply, they too were forced into emergency shutdown mode, resulting in significant damages. In that case, a jury awarded Tesoro damages and a PG&E spokesperson took responsibility for the event.

"PG&E accepts responsibility for the outage at a substation that affected the refinery," the spokesman said. "We appreciate the jury's efforts in this case, and we believe their allocation of responsibility was fair." - PG&E Spokesperson Law360, “Jury Dings PG&E $3.5M For Tesoro Refinery Outage”

Expanding and Enhancing Community Notifications As part of our ongoing commitment to being a good neighbor, Valero wants to assist in expanding and enhancing the existing notification system by increasing the number of residents who are signed up to receive notifications.

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Questions or Comments? Keep in Touch: Email us at info@beniciarefinery.com