PBF Energy Inc. (PBF) on Tuesday said it has begun to restart equipment at Torrance, Calif., refinery following a power outage earlier in the day.

The regional power outage affected some 80,000 Southern California Edison customers including the refinery, and forced PBF to flare off gases as units shut down earlier in the day, PBF spokesman Michael Karlovich said. Local television footage showed large flames shooting from the plant's flares.

"All safety systems at the refinery operated properly; all personnel are safe and accounted for," said Mr. Karlovich. "We are able to meet our commercial obligations."

The re-start is expected last several days and be done with minimal noise and flaring, he added.

The electricity outage follows a similar SCE outage last month that led PBF to begin talks with officials at the utility about improving their service to the refinery. Mr. Karlovich said PBF "will obviously look to accelerate those discussions," in the wake of Tuesday's incident.

Write to Dan Molinski at dan.molinski@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 11, 2016 11:37 ET (15:37 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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