Yesterday’s big news was the electrical power outage that turned the air conditioning off to about 4462 customers. Initially the 4462 customers, both commercial and residential, went dark around 4 pm after a major PG&E transformer exploded. The outages effected local business, homes and meetings with the City of Sutter Creek having to postpone their Planning Commission meeting. The transformer explosion, located in the Martell area just off of Highway 49, is thought to be heat related. As PG&E crews responded the call lines to the utility were swamped with local residents asking about restoration. By about 8 pm 1100 or so customers had their power restored by PG&E crews that were able to shift the power grid around slightly. The remainder of the customers saw their power restored by about 1 am last night. According to PG&E spokesman JD Guidi as permanent repairs are made through out the day today customers will be taken off line, for a few minutes at a time, as tests are conducted. This will occur through out the day today but these outages will be planned, temporary, short in duration, and part of the overall fix.