Dozens of people in one San Jose neighborhood say they're averaging one power outage a week.
The outages are affecting about 5,000 PG&E customers in the Evergreen area. In most cases, the outages last a couple of hours.
"We’ve lost power six times in about seven weeks," Sarab Chimni said.
Chimni said the frequent outages are taking a toll on his family.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
"We lose the connectivity with all the communications, the internet," he said. "The alarm systems go down. If you happen to have something in the oven, then you have problems with the food cooking."
Neighbor DeeAnn Harn said the outages were especially challenging during the recent heat wave.
"We ended up sleeping outside because it was so hot," she said. "It just feels like we pay so much money for services and things to happen and then all of a sudden if just goes off."
NBC Bay Area reached out to PG&E, which said some above ground power lines feed into the neighborhood’s underground system and when a hazard, such as a limb on a power line is detected in high-risk fire areas, the utility has a switch that automatically shuts them off. It's all part of the company's enhanced power line safety settings.
In a statement, PG&E said, "while these safety settings help keep our customers safe and prevent wildfires, they can also result in unplanned outages for our customers. We are taking immediate action to lessen the impact of outages and improve reliability while not compromising safety."
The company said that action includes trimming trees near power lines and installing special fault indicators to help crews pinpoint exactly where the problem is and restore power more quickly.
Based on the company’s recent track record, residents don't have a lot of faith in the lights staying on these days. Some are now looking into shelling out money for a backup option.
"I’ve been looking into getting solar and a battery, but that’s fairly expensive," Chimni said. "That's about 20,000 bucks for the house."
This isn't the only San Jose neighborhood facing this problem. Earlier this year, residents in the Graystone neighborhood experienced five power outages in six weeks, also linked to the company's power line safety outages.
