Abstract
The experience of Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) in coping with a series of major outages in Bakersfield, CA, suggests that a prolonged period of below-average reliability can prompt a vocal response from citizens, their elected representatives, and other local officials. Over 7000 residential and commercial customers in the city were plagued with many, often severe, power outages during 1979-85. PG&E response was often piecemeal in the beginning, but by 1985, many company officials began to believe that the technical problems were much more serious than had earlier been thought. The politicization of the outage problems is traced, and the utility's political response is evaluated in order to draw lessons for other electric utilities.