Colleagues,
As we reported in the previous Level 1 message, PG&E shut off power to the Lab’s hill location at 12:18 a.m this morning. All Lab facilities and buildings at the main site are in a safe and stable condition. The Lab’s main hill site will remain closed tomorrow, Friday, Oct. 11, and will be closed until further notice.
Unless you are part of the emergency response effort or are recalled, please do not come to the Lab’s main site until you have received notice from a Level 1 message with specific instructions on reopening. The UC Berkeley campus is also closed. Lab staff who work in facilities at the UC Berkeley campus should not report to their work locations and instead find alternative locations. Other Lab locations, including JGI, Emery Station East, Potter Street, and OCFO, remain open.
At this time, we cannot provide a detailed timeline on when the Lab’s main site will reopen. The site will remain closed until PG&E restores power to the site and the Lab has restarted our facilities and operations in an orderly and safe manner. The process of safely re-energizing the Lab after power is restored can take approximately 36 hours. Our most optimistic estimate is that Lab operations will resume Monday, October 14.
Emergency Operations Center staff are finalizing re-energization plans at this time. We will provide more information about this restart process in future updates.
I want to thank everyone for their patience as we continue to respond to the unprecedented event of a public safety power shutdown at the Lab and surrounding communities. Our most important objectives during this process is to ensure the safety of our staff, and the safety of our facilities — and we need everyone’s cooperation to achieve these goals.
An FAQ with general information about the power shutdown and specific information on user facilities, IT, timekeeping and payroll, and transportation is available here.
Continue to check for information on status.lbl.gov, at 1-800-445-5830, or at @LBNLstatus.
Michael Brandt
Deputy Director, Operations and
Chief Operating Officer