RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- The city is giving further insight into what went wrong with Richmond's reservoir system on Monday, leaving residents in and around Richmond with little to no water. On Monday, Jan. 6, a power outage caused a malfunction of the city's reservoir system during the first winter storm of 2025. In the days after, Richmonders' water service was cut off, with surrounding counties like Henrico, Hanover and Goochland also feeling the effects. Since then, on Thursday, Jan. 9, the reservoir is finally at a point where water can begin circulating through the city again -- but a boil water advisory still remains in effect. ALL COVERAGE: Richmond Area Water Crisis During a briefing with members of the media Thursday afternoon, Mayor Danny Avula provided a clearer timeline of what actually happened Monday morning. Avula clarified that this is the most updated information as of about 4 p.m. Thursday. While many questions still remain unanswered, what he could share painted a better picture of how Richmond's water treatment plant failed. This included details on staffing at the plant and an explanation of the redundancies that are supposed to prevent something like this from happening in the first place. So what happened Monday morning? According to Avula, the involved water treatment plant has two power sources supplied by Dominion Energy. If one fails, the other is meant to automatically take over, preventing an interruption of water service. They are on two different power grids, as well, in another effort to ensure at least one is working at all times. The plant lost power before 6 a.m. on Monday. Avula said that the automatic switch -- which has worked without issue for over two decades, ever since a similar failure during Hurricane Isabel in 2003 -- did not occur. MORE: What is ‘water production’ and where is my water? Bridging gap between rhetoric and what Richmonders are actually seeing At this time, the cause of this failure is unknown, with Avula saying the city is actively working to understand what happened. The plant then has backup batteries -- however, as they are meant to be a short-term power solution, their charge only lasted about 45 minutes. Avula specified that they are capable of supporting 50 million gallons of water service a day -- the city's average consumption during winter -- when fully functional. According to Avula, the on-call electrician was called to the plant by the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) staffers who were at the plant when the power loss occurred. This electrician was able to manually switch the power sources and did so at about 7 a.m. Monday. In the window between the backup batteries running out of power and the electrician manually switching to the second power source, the plant was without electricity. Avula said it was then that the computer system that controls water operations, which he called "SCADA," failed. IN HENRICO: Henrico convenience store caught price gouging bottled water during state of emergency, water crisis SCADA stands for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition and is a broad term for high-level computing systems used in production or with machinery. While the SCADA was immediately turned back on once power was restored, Avula said there was a subsequent issue of getting it to reconnect to servers. The SCADA is handled by an IT contractor, who Avula said was called to the plant. After arriving early Monday afternoon, they worked for hours to restore that connection. The plant also experienced flooding during this time, with the DPU staff on-site bringing in sub-pumps to try and pump the water out. However, Avula said the basement well where this flooding was taking place was filling too fast for the pumps to keep up with. He said he witnessed the speed of this flooding during the second malfunction at the plant on Tuesday. While it was a lesser incident compared to Monday's, Avula was still surprised at how quickly the water rose. PREVIOUS: Richmond residents will have to go longer without water as another malfunction delays restoration efforts "It's remarkable how quickly that area can flood," he told the media on Thursday. Avula was also asked about the timeline of communication on this crisis. While a formal briefing was held by city officials at 1 p.m. on Monday, Avula said he was first informed of the plant's failure at about mid-morning. He added that he was told the counties connected to Richmond's water system -- Henrico, Hanover and Chesterfield counties -- were also told of the issues around that time. A more formal report on these communications will be provided when possible, according to Avula. What comes next as the city investigates? Avula said the city will be rigorously investigating each part of this incident. Officials are in contact with a firm that will assist with after-action processes. The media that gathered for the mayor's Thursday briefing presented several questions -- some Avula could answer, some he could not. He said each question he could not answer would be added to the list of inquiries the city would make as part of said investigation. PREVIOUS: Mayor Danny Avula says Richmond boil water advisory should be lifted Friday or Saturday As said above, a central question facing Richmond officials is why the automatic switching of power sources did not occur. Avula clarified that -- as of Thursday -- it is believed that the failure was not caused by something on Dominion Energy's side. Whatever caused it, Avula ensured that it would be dealt with. Additionally, Avula said the city will be looking into why the SCADA would not reconnect to the server, as that is also unknown at this time. In 2003, following a similar failure caused by Hurricane Isabel, new policies and procedures were put in place to help prevent issues like this one. Avula said part of the city's investigation will involve reviewing those changes to determine what was effective and what was not. Questions were asked about the age of the involved power sources and about whether or not they -- as well as the backup systems that activate them -- had been tested recently. Avula said he did not know on both counts and that the city would look into this. PREVIOUS: ‘We don’t have the answers,' Water crisis in Central Virginia leaves residents and businesses struggling Avula was asked about procedures in place to prevent flooding before it could occur, with a reporter saying they were told of one such method and asking why it was not used. Avula could not answer and wrote down this inquiry for further investigation. Members of the media also asked about the on-call electrician's response time, wondering if it was "normal" for it to take over an hour for them to arrive at the plant and fix an issue. Avula said that, given how rare such a failure like this is, he isn't sure there is a "normal" at all. He added that one of the many things the city is considering is how they can prevent the batteries from running out before an electrician can arrive. Options he floated included longer-lasting batteries, mandating shorter response times and/or having an electrician on site in the future rather than on-call, at least during severe weather events. In preparation for the winter storm expected to hit Virginia on Friday, Avula said additional staffing will be on-site at the water treatment plant in case of further issues. They will all be focused on keeping water service uninterrupted. PREVIOUS: ‘We are in this together,' Youngkin provides updates on water crisis, winter storm response Avula could not say what "additional staffing" actually will look like, but he said typical staffing at the water treatment plant is three to four employees. Beyond this investigation, Avula said staffers are already working on partnering with the General Assembly to get more support for Richmond's infrastructural needs. Richmond has been working to improve its aging infrastructure for years. The city already had the legislative priority of addressing its combined stormwater overflow system prior to this crisis. Following this event, the city will now be advocating to improve the water treatment plant, according to Avula. Especially given the way this crisis has impacted the General Assembly, effectively delaying the start of its 2025 General Session, Avula said he hopes this can restart the conversation. PREVIOUS: School officials, city councilmembers assist Richmond residents in need of water For additional information on the Richmond-area water crisis, you can find all of 8News' reporting here.