SCE Scrambles To Answer Questions About 20-Hour Outage & And PSPS False Alarm
Written by 991KBU on October 29, 2020
Caltrans and Southern California Edison have some questions to answer … about some apparent mammoth screwups during Monday’s power outage.
First … the power company.
Malibu officials plan to demand answers from Edison over the massive power outage that left a third of the city blacked out for a day and night.
The power company has yet to provide an explanation for what caused 23 hundred 32 customer accounts to lose power in the Santa Anas on Monday.
And into Tuesday.
Winds were strong … but not severe.
70 mile per hour wind gusts were observed … and under state standards … the power company is supposed to have a system that can withstand sustained wind gusts of 92 miles per hour.
Residents reported an explosion along power lines in Latigo Canyon … and repair crews told passersby that a long each of uninsulated lines had slapped into each other.
That may have triggered a massive equipment failure at the nearby Latigp Canyon substation … where crews were observed working all night.
No explanation from Edison as to what happened … or why emergency planners at the city were not able to get informtiomn about the extend of the problem.
To be fair … Edison was dealing with a major fire in Orange County … caused by Edison power lines.
And the windstorm had knocked outpower to 67 thiousand Edison accounts in Southern Claifornia.
Plus … another 30 thousand customers elsewhere had PSPS blackouts … intentional blackouts aimed at preventing fires.
Adding to the confusion in Malibu … Edison somehow managed to send out PSPS warnings to the city and others in the 90265 zip code.
Many of the intentional blackout warnings went to houses that had already been blacked out for hours.
No explanation from Edison for that separate screw up.
The city will talk with Edison today to try to find out what went wrong.
Why power failed in winds that were not uncommon.
Why it took so long to get the lights back on.
And why Edison instituted intentional blackout warnings … apparently by mistake.
