SC Edison Plans For Wind Blackouts Explained, Speakers Say They Will Cause Death And Property Damage

Southern California Edison officials appeared before the Malibu public safety commission yesterday … and gave the first explanation of their plans to black out the city when severe winds threaten.

The utility is rolling out across southern California its new policy of switching off electrical circuits to prevent possible fires.

Critics were there last night … asking the utility how they can jeopardize public safety by switching off water pumps … traffic lights … internet and cell phone service … and other essential electricity powered Systems.

Question number one: how fast will the winds have to be … to shut the power off to Malibu.

The answer … from Edison engineer Steve Chui:

NEWSCART 77653 CHUI CRITERIA  :21 QQQQ: THAT ALL FEED INTO THE CONSIDERATION.

“Reality is there is not a single wind speed criteria.

“A lot of it depends on the vegetation that we have near the circuit that we have.

“What are the type of vegetation that we have nearby?
“What are the moIsture level?

“The dryness of these vegetation?

“The windspeed?

“That all feeds into the consideration.”

And that data will feed to S C Edison headquarters … where a corporate officer will make the decision … when to pull the plug on Malibu.

NEWSCART 77654 CHUI DECISION   :30

QQQQ: OFFICER OF THE COMPANY

“All that information will get fed into this PSPS task force, and ultimately the PSPS task force, based on all this information plus the weather conditions, plus understanding

the amount of risk associated with the abundance of dry vegetation that’s a available in the neighborhood of the circuit in question, we’ll make a decision to de-energize a circuit and ultimately this will be done by an officer of the company.”

That officer will also decide when to send power back into Malibu … and that may take a long time.

Chui said the utility has to be very careful before declaring the blackout to be over.

NEWSCART 77655 CHUI REENERGIZE   :19

QQQ: RE-ENERGIZE THOSE CIRCUITS.

“What we don’t want is immediately turn these on, because that would create another set of immediate safety exposure for the comm, so what we ant to do is do a careful patrol, inspect as quickly as possible, inspect all the circuits to make sure they are safe, before we re-energize those circuits.”

So .. the million dollar question … how often can Malibu expect the power to be intentionally shut off this fall and winter … leaving the community without essential services at the height of  hot wind storms???
S C E’s Chiu says they get that question … a lot.

NEWSCART 77658 BLACKOUTS CHIU  1111  :13 

QQQ:  FROM TWO TO TEN.

“This could be four events, this could be six events, we really don’t have a crystal ball to see what the future holds.

“But based in history. what we think is going to happen is from two to 10.”

The electric company engineer says that estimate is systemwide …. and Edison covers a vast swath of California where weather conditions are quite different from place to place.

In fact . one Malibu resident pointed out yesterday that wind conditions can vary significantly even just in Malibu.

For example the Big Rock area getting blasted while Paradise Cove is calm.

Other Malibu residents protested the plan.

About six people had questions or complaints.

Georgia Goldfarb said leaving people without air conditioning in extreme heat is a disaster waiting to happen.

NEWSCART 77657 GEORGIA GOLDFARB :26

QQQ:   SEVERE HEAT CONDITIONS

“This will leave many with no choice, but to go to a hotel or suffer, and yes, perhaps, die from heat-related illnesses, if they cannot afford a hotel.

“This places vulnerable people, older people, young children, people dependent on medical equipment, people with disabilities, at a greater risk.  …

“Water supply would be limited in our community without electricity.

“Without water, we can’t really live in our homes, especially under severe heat conditions.”

And Big Rock Mesa resident Juergen Rood criticized the Edison plan … for not including emergency generators at water tanks.

NEWSCART 77652 JURGEN :15

QQQ FOR THE PUMPS

“So that means if Edison would be nice enough to install a generator on each of these pumps which are distributed in equal areas, then we have automatically electricity for the pumps.”

That is called mitigation … but Edison wiggled out of required mitigation at the state Public Utilities Commission.

Other residents asked the Edison engineers last night … what about people with medical conditions.

What should they do ???

Again … Edison engineer Steve Chui.

NEWSCART 77656 CHIU GENERATORS  :08 QQQQ:  THAT THEY HAVE TO MAKE.

“They definitely have the option to go out and procure generators, but that’s a decision that they need to make.”

And also .. that they need to pay for.

The Edison plan was criticized by a representative of KBUU Radio … who said state law requires that electric monopoly companies provide safe and reliable power.

A power circuit that has to be shut down in winds …. that are below the state design standard of 92 miles an hour … is not safe or reliable … he said.

But the California Public Utilities Commission sees the law differently.

They say the risk of electric-caused fires is far worse than the risk to communities .. that are cut off without power during Santa Anas.

One reason the state government may see it this way is the report yesterday …. that the state’s three big power companies together are spending one million dollars a month on lobbying state officials.

Southern California Edison reported spending $900,000 over the last three months to lobby state legislators and bureaucrats … according to the Sacramento Bee newspaper.

PG&E spent $1.7 million on lobbying over three months this year.

San Diego Gas and Electric’s parent company … a half million.

The lobbying as utility companies plan blackouts … to reduce their liability.

Gov. Jerry Brown agrees that utility companies should have less liability for causing fires … if their poles are kept in good shape.

Brown’s proposes to shift some of the financial burden for non-negligent power pole fires to homeowners’ insurance companies .… which would of pass those costs on to homeowners.

Gov. Jerry Brown said he believes electric utilities could go bankrupt due to the increasing threat of wildfires, if current law isn’t changed.