Dive Summary:
- On September 8, 2011, San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) lost power to all 2.7 million of its customers.
- 14 minutes into the blackout, SDG&E sent out its first tweet; 17 hours later, the utility company had sent out 110 tweets.
- Before the blackout, SDG&E only had approximately 2,000 followers on Twitter; after the blackout, it had 16,600.
From the article:
"'There’s two times when the customer will be very interested in their utility experience: One is a high bill, and the other is an outage,' Patrick Charles told a GridWeek 2012 panel.
He speaks from experience—an experience no one in the electric utility industry ever wants to live through.
Charles is the smart grid customer solutions manager at San Diego Gas and Electric. On Sept. 8, 2011, for the first time in the company’s 130-year history, all 2.7 million of its electric customers went dark. ..."