SCE Power Pole Replacement Project Will Continue During Pandemic, Residents’ Group Wants ‘Routine’ Work Stopped
Written by 991KBU on March 27, 2020
Southern California Edison says its crews will continue to perform wildfire mitigation work on power lines … even during the COVID 19 crisis.
But a homeowners group in the Santa Monica Mountains sayd the company is endangering people by turning off power lines during a state of emergency.
The electric company says it is prioritizing critical wildfire protection work … even as the company postpones less pressing upgrades.
Edison is under state orders to harden its overhead electrical system … including replacing old spindly wooden poles with thicker new ones.
Also … old bare wire lines are being replaced by insulated overhead liens in many places.
The company says that postponing this critical work could inadvertently create larger and more dangerous risks.
“We do not take the decision to proceed with an outage lightly, and our teams are working to shorten the duration as much as possible.”
And in boldface letters … the Southern California Edison letter says this:
“We must go forward with work necessary to protect public safety including reducing wildfire risk.”
End quote … and they put that in bold letters.
But yesterday … a homeowners group in the Santa Monica Mountains claimed it has shut down routine Southern California Edison repair work.
The Las Virgenes Homeowners Federation claims that it has one an order from the Los Angeles county Department of Public Works to block power company projects.
The Los Virgenes Homeowners Federation put out a statement that said … and we quote … Southern California Edison has incredulously been going into communities across L.A. County … AND TURNING RESIDENTS’ POWER OFF.”
Turning residents’ power out was put in all capital letters by the Homeowners Federation.
They called SCE’s work “non-essential, non-emergency maintenance.”
Close quote.
The Las Virgenes Homeowners Federation claims that the L.A. County Public Works Director has issued a stop work order to SCE.
It’s not clear if this has really happened …. we have asked the county what is happening here.
L A County does not have any regulatory oversight over Southern Calfiornia Edison … that is the job of the California Public Utilities Commission.
And Southern California Edison has a legal right of way easements to install equipment on county roads …
The Homeowners Federation request apparently conflicts with California law.
The governor’s emergency orders have declared construction to be an essential service.
On a general basis … Edison says its line crews are still working during the pandemic.
Spokesman Robert Villegas was interviewed last night on ABC 7 … about Edison capabilities on a general basis.
NEWSCART 75499 VILLEGAS
“We have two thirds roughly of our 15,000 workers … working from home.
“But we also have about 5,000 workers deemed critical to maintain who are there to maintain the infrastructure … to make sure that the grid continues to function smoothly … and of course to do repairs went emergencies or public safety requires us to have that.”
Robert Villegas … speaking to ABC7 last night … about Edison’s commitment during the Covid-19 crisis.
But specifically regarding power line replacement to prevent wildfires … we quote again from the electric company’s letter.
“Safely providing reliable service means critical scheduled outages must continue, even during this unprecedented COVID-19 situation.”
End quote.
