Security guards and portable toilets spotted at PG&E substations around San Francisco could be linked to a recent break-in at a facility, raising safety concerns among consumer advocates amid attacks on power grids across the country.

According to the San Francisco Police Department, the break-in occurred at 8:39 p.m. on June 9 at the PG&E substation on Leidesdorff Street near Commercial Street.

“We witnessed an unauthorized break-in at a San Francisco substation and are working with law enforcement to investigate,” PG&E spokesman Jason King confirmed, adding that there were no power outages related to the incident.

According to initial police investigations, an unknown person gained access to the facility and manipulated a control panel in the electrical system. PG&E security personnel notified the FBI after the incident.

Dispatch audio recordings from the time of the incident described it as “sabotage” and classified it as malicious mischief or vandalism.

District Manager Aaron Peskin, who represents the area, didn’t know if guards were stationed at other PG&E substations in San Francisco, but said the incident may have been a reason to add them.

“If there are guards, I’m assuming it’s not because of broken transformers, but because they hacked into one of their substations,” Peskin said.

When asked if the incident resulted in an increased security presence around the utility’s San Francisco substations, King said he couldn’t name specific security measures to “avoid giving anyone a roadmap.”

Security guards and mobile toilets were spotted at three substations in different parts of the city.

Attacks on the power grid in the United States

Recent attacks on nine substations in North Carolina, Washington and Oregon have increased concerns about power grid security.

The New York Times reported in February that the FBI had offered two $25,000 rewards for information leading to the conviction of those responsible for two shootings at a North Carolina substation in December and January. The January incident left 45,000 people without power for five days.

Recent attacks have made network security a key priority for North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC).

“The increase in physical attacks on the nation’s power infrastructure underscores the need to continue to assess potential grid vulnerabilities and determine whether additional security controls are needed to more fully protect this critical infrastructure going forward,” said Rachel Sherrard, spokeswoman for NERC. in an opinion.

According to one report, PG&E spent $300 million protecting substations after a San Jose substation was hit by gunfire in 2013, causing $15 million in damage.

The San Jose incident prompted a brief statewide safety assessment, according to Thomas Long, director of regulatory strategy at the Utility Reform Network, a California consumer advocacy group for utilities.

“There was some effort [California] “The Public Utilities Commission needs to look into whether PG&E and other utilities are taking care of the adequate security of these substations, but that was many years ago and I don’t recall there being a public inquiry,” Long said.

It has long been questioned whether regulators will hold PG&E accountable for making proper use of its revenue, which is funded by the high utility fees paid by consumers.

“I don’t know if PG&E is doing enough security efforts given the money taxpayers are paying,” he said. “Our tariffs fund PG&E to provide these security guards at the substations.”

The California Public Utilities Commission did not respond to comment at the time of publication.

In late April, thousands of customers in Downtown and Chinatown were without power for five days after a fire at a PG&E underground vault at 640 Clay St. The San Francisco Fire Department responded in less than four minutes, but it took PG&E 20 minutes to arrive at the scene.

The delay in emergency response time and restoration of power prompted Peskin to convene a May 18 hearing where residents of affected areas criticized the utility.

“There have been numerous failures of vaults and other PG&E equipment over many years,” Peskin said at the hearing. “This particular incident is characterized by the fact that […] power was restored to the last buildings and individuals 123 hours later.”

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The onset of spring means a shift toward warmer weather and blooming flowers, and while we’re not quite done with the storms, the rain should stop on Friday, just in time for another spring tradition: the launch of Season 13 of Off the Grid at Fort Mason. Of course, there will be a mix of new and returning food trucks for the Friday Night Series, along with cocktail and wine bars, live music and DJs, and a new reason to get excited about the food and drink at the weekly event. This year, Off the Grid is reintroducing pop-ups—for the first time since 2019—with a standout pop-up projects section designed to highlight 16 pop-ups from across the Bay Area, including Edith’s Pie, Junk Mail, and Musubi, among others , Bolita, Rocky Island Oyster Co. and La Cocina.

Edith’s cake

It’s been a rough couple of years for the food truck-centric event, with the 2020 season being canceled due to COVID, followed by 2021 when Off the Grid took the year off – but 2022 saw the group come back with a host of events in the whole city. “Coming back this year, we really wanted to put a lot of momentum and purpose behind it,” says Lex Scala, president of Off the Grid. “And that’s where the pop-up project came from.”

Scala and her team found a number of pop-ups across the Bay Area for the new section, and she’s pleased they’ve made more connections with food manufacturers outside of San Francisco to bring to Fort Mason. Junk Mail Musubi brings its over-the-top spam Musubis with ingredients like Flamin’ Hot Cheetos; Edith’s Pie, which is in the process of completing its permanent Oakland location, will serve a selection of sweet and savory pies; Eko Kitchen presents Chef Simileoluwa Adebajo’s Nigerian cuisine; Street Stix serves Asian street food like lumpia and shrimp balls; Meanwhile, Fish & Bonez serves tacos and Cali-Mex fare. La Cocina will also have a space to showcase a rotating mix of chefs from their incubator program in the pop-up area.

Fish & Bone

Rocky Island oysters

Scala was also thrilled to announce Off the Grid’s new addition to oysters, with the arrival of Richmond’s Rocky Island Oyster Co., which will also have caviar on hand should groups feel like splurging on an indulgent add-on. Kivelstadt Cellars Wine Bar will also be on-site with some refreshments including a canned Chardonnay that will be exclusive to Off the Grid – “I can’t wait to bring these two together,” says Scala.

The pop-up initiative is just another way for Off the Grid to bring together a variety of different kitchens and chefs and bring their food to new audiences. After 13 seasons of Off the Grid, Scala is proud to watch chefs as they’ve grown their food truck businesses over the years, whether that’s by expanding their fleet or moving to permanent restaurants across the Bay Area. Now it’s time to add a new class of pop-ups for attendees to enjoy. “At the end of the day,” says Scala, “our mission is to find the best of the best, create exceptional events, be part of those creators’ journeys, and watch them grow.”

Off the Grid: Fort Mason Center (2 Marina Blvd) debuts Friday, March 24 from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. The season continues every Friday through June 23rd.

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The post San Francisco Meals Truck Occasion Off the Grid Reopens at Fort Mason with New Pop-Ups Promoting Oysters, Wine, and Extra appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

There was a time when Señor Sisig, the popular Filipino fusion food truck, dispatched a fleet of six trucks to all corners of San Francisco throughout the week. It wasn’t uncommon to spot customers fidgeting on their phones while they queued up at the truck’s regular haunts around SoMa or FiDi neighborhoods. But that was more than two years ago, before a disappearing lunch crowd transformed the once-bustling districts into a ghost town.

The lack of customers around those enclaves eventually led co-owners Evan Kidera and Gil Payumo to re-evaluate their fleet of six and cut it down to four trucks. It also forced them to tighten their availability to serve their ever-popular California sisig burritos or crunch wraps to just a few spots around SF.

“There was nobody down there and it wasn’t even worth sending trucks down to our permitted locations, so we had to pivot,” Kidera said of his former downtown San Francisco outpost. “I think we were in a unique situation where we probably had more food trucks than anybody and to find six locations, seven days a week, for lunch and dinner was pretty much impossible.”

Customers line up at a Señor Sisig truck in 2019. During the pandemic, the popular Filipino fusion business reduced its fleet of six trucks to four as lunch crowds around San Francisco diminished.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGate.com

Kidera said that the fleet took a financial blow during the pandemic but the overall business was fortunate in that Señor Sisig had opened its first brick-and-mortar at 990 Valencia St. in the Mission District months before the shutdown. Then, a second location at 1628 Webster St. in Oakland opened in early 2021. It was a shift from Señor Sisig’s primary model, but one that pushed the business to continue to grow.

Still, running a food truck business in the Bay Area hasn’t come without its own set of glitches, despite its inherent takeout model. The dependency on lunch crowds forced some operators around the US to join third-party delivery apps or do home deliveries in suburbs, like Kona Ice of North Marin did, to stay connected with customers. It’s a trade that Matt Cohen, CEO and founder of Off the Grid, believes isn’t easy and necessitates being both “nimble and flexible.”

“Food trucks sometimes get forgotten in the challenges that they face,” Cohen told SFGATE. “You have to be able to communicate where you’re going to be and be able to get [people] to come out and support you. The ones with smaller audiences struggled more because of that.”

The California sisig burrito served at Señor Sisig. During the pandemic, the popular Filipino fusion business reduced its fleet of six trucks to four as lunch crowds around San Francisco diminished.

Patrick Beaudouin

Off the Grid markets, now in their 12th year, are advantageous to participating vendors who, before the pandemic, could expect thousands of guests at the organization’s largest markets at Park Presidio and Fort Mason. After a two-year hiatus, Off the Grid’s Fort Mason market returns April 1.

In June 2020, Off the Grid planned a Fort Mason comeback, albeit with a smaller-scale project called Fort Mason Center Food Spot. Days after announcing the event, a spokesperson told SFGATE that it was canceled due to “unforeseen circumstances,” but eventually launched the project at Fort Mason that same month. Throughout the pandemic, Off the Grid has kept a low profile with reduced markets and days it operated. Previously, it ran 12 different markets around the Bay Area, but Cohen estimates just about 20% returned, though more markets are anticipated to open in early April.

“Our company was founded on the idea of ​​the power of in-person gatherings,” Cohen said. “The lack or inability to exercise that muscle for the last two years has been something like a phantom limb.”

When the market opens Friday evening, 25 vibrant trucks are expected to set up shop at one of Fort Mason’s sizeable parking lots, where guests will once again see some of the tenured food partners, like Señor Sisig and The Chairman, along with newcomers Vegan Mob , Media Noche and Papalote, plus more, which will join the existing rotation. This time around, the event will only focus on mobile vendors and not include tents, to help “maximize the potential benefit” of the food truck industry, Cohen said.

Dominic’s food truck was born out of the pandemic when owner Chris DeGrande added a truck to his business.

KRM Photography/ @karnamarie

Dominic’s, owned by Chris DeGrande, is one of the newer vendors, having joined Off the Grid beginning in November 2020. Before the pandemic, DeGrande’s background was in hosting banquets and catering large events where he served a dash of Italian and American staples. But during the summer of 2020, he decided to buy his first food truck, which would become an extension of his banquet facility, Dominic’s at Oyster Point, and one way to keep his staff employed amid some of his most challenging days.

“The food truck came about because the pandemic shut us down completely,” DeGrande said of his banquet and catering operations. “I never had [one] and it’s a great complement to what we’re doing. It was a huge help to be able to keep our employees working.”

Never in his wildest dreams did DeGrande fathom owning a mobile business. He reckoned that running banquets and catering were much easier than managing a food truck or restaurant as the number of plates needed on any given day was already accounted for by a caterer. While DeGrande views his experience in catering as an asset, especially with regards to Off the Grid, there were hard lessons along the way about operating an active food truck in the Bay Area.

DeGrande shared the vexing steps needed to run his food truck in San Francisco County, which he described as time-consuming, from clearing regulations with the fire department to applying for a number of permits. Señor Sisig’s Kidera, now a 12-year veteran, shared that a common misconception of running a business on wheels is that people assume it’s a lot easier than it appears.

The filet mignon sliders from Dominic’s food truck. Chris DeGrande, owner of Dominic’s, added a truck to his business model during the pandemic.

KRM Photography/ @karnamarie

“There’s a lot of moving pieces that make it a challenging business to run, and to run more than one, let alone six is, is a task,” Kidera said. “I look back and I’m like, ‘How did I even do six?’ That’s crazy… but you know, we’ve done it. Right now, the plan is to keep the four and continue to send those out.”

One way food truck vendors went around San Francisco’s permitting rules was to join Off the Grid, or other markets around the city, that hold lease agreements with landlords. In the case of Off the Grid, each market varies, but Cohen said he pays rent to landlords that range from specific cities to various institutions to private landowners. According to San Francisco Business Portal, food trucks that operate at Off the Grid markets must pay the organization a fee or percentage of their sales to participate.

What remains to be seen is whether the lunch crowd will come back. The answer is still unknown, at least for now, but it’s one Cohen hopes to realize with the Fort Mason homecoming.

“Fort Mason is special because of the setting,” Cohen said. “It’s the location that does the best job at capturing the spirit that we channel with every single one of our experiences. We’re really bringing back a good number of lunch markets in anticipation of people returning, at least to some extent, to work.”

DeGrande and Kidera are both excited to see the turnout at Fort Mason as they join others in the food industry who made it out the other side. Kidera, for one, is thrilled to meet many of the new operators, especially the ones who pivoted to mobile trucks amid the pandemic.

“Some of the best stuff comes out of these challenging times,” he said. “It’ll be interesting to see what the new landscape of the food truck industry is in San Francisco.”

Off the Grid returns to Fort Mason on April 1 and is scheduled to run each Friday from 5 pm to 10 pm

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