Drizzle And SCE Outages May Be Related, As Company Explains Its Rate Increase For Distribution
Written by 991KBU on October 18, 2021
This article was corrected at 4:20 am Wed Oct 20 to properly refer to Ron Gales as an Edison Senior Advisor, not vice president. Also, to add SCE’s new disclosure that a very small percentage of customers will be exempt from the rate change.
How can you tell when the first wet weather of the fall season arrives? In Malibu … it’s when Southern California Edison transformers start to blow.
True to form … it drizzled this morning.
And at least two transformer explosions were reported by L A County Fire in Malibu.
One on Point Dume.
No outage there.
A more-serious blown transformer was reported on PCH at La Costa Beach.
That blast was reported about 10 minutes after power outage reports began filtering in to KBUU News … traffic signals had failed from Billionaires Beach as far east as the Getty Villa.
Under one transformer at La Costa Beach … both eastbound lanes of PCH were blocked off by sheriff’s deputies with debris in the lanes.
SCE has demonstrated an inability to keep its power lines clear of contamination … dust and crud that accumulates on overhead gear in Malibu’s coastal environment.
When the crud gets soaked in actual rain … the contamination results in voltage leaks … those crackles and sparks that you can hear at night.
Those sometimes cause pole fires or explosions.
One weekend in October of 2017 … there were 14 such Edison booms in one day.
SCE line workers have told KBUU that the company had cut back on maintenance… the insulators were no longer being washed by special trucks with nozzles on booms.
Those trucks were brought out of retirement after the 2017 explosions.
And Edison has been installing anti-crud coverings at key locations ….
We are not experts … and we are not sure exactly what cause this morning’s explosions in the drizzle.
But we can tell ypou that SCE reliabilty statistics show that the average Malibu power customer was iblacked out for 1,478 minutes during 2020, a cumulative set of electric failures that is seven times worse than the SCE average.
And in the trouble-plagued Cuthbert Circuit, serving Paradise Cove and Point Dume, saw 3,656 minutes of blackouts last year – that’s more than 60 hours of cumulative no service.
And now …
Southern California Edison admits that a letter it sent out last week … about needing to choose a new power rate for residential customers … could have been worded better.
Anyone who reads the letter might say that is an understatement.
And the bottom line … it’s notice of a likely electric rate increase … for the power that Edison delivers to ypour meter.
Not the power itself … just the delivery.
Almost every Edison customer is being switch over to Time Of Use rates … which increase the cost of power during peak hours …. in the evening. There are a few exceptions: such as people living in very hot places, people on special rates for their medical equipment.
About a quarter of Edison’s 4.3 million residential customers are already on a Time Of Use rate …
Even those customers will have to choose a new Time Of Use rate … as the current rate is being discontinued in December.
Edison senior advisor Ron Gales tells KBUU News that heavy users of electricity in the evening can save a lot of money when they switch to time of use rates …
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“If a customer is informed that the new on-peak rate is 4 to 9 p-m … and adjusts their electricity use accordingly … let’s say does their laundry or their dishwasher before 4 p-m or after 9 p-m … or charges their electric vehicle before 4 -pm or after 9 that analysis could get lower.
“And in fact … of the customers that are transferring to TOU (Time Of Use) rates … our analysis shows that about 50 percent of the residential customers .. be they in community choice aggregations or not … will see lower bills … but some will see higher.
“And for those people who are going to see higher bills … we ask them to choose another rate.”
But people who already are on time of use rates … and who use small amounts of power … there is no cheaper rate.
One small two person household in Malibu already avoids using major appliances during afternoon and evening hours … no air conditioner …
That household will see a power bill increase of 9 percent … under the cheapest new Time Of Day rate.
The letter sent by Edison was a confusing and in some cases inaccurate … and the Edison spokesman does not disagree about that.
It does not mention the fact that this is a rate hike for delivery only … not for the actual power …
Power comes from a different company altogether in Malibu … for 97 percent of Malibu people … that company would be the Clean Power Alliance.
Ron Gales:
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“You will stay on the Clean Power Alliance … you will still be a customer of them. The choice you make, even though – and I know this is confusing. Even though the analysis that we provide includes both SCE and your community choice aggregator ,,, that’s the analysts. But when you make your choice of which rate to choose, that is going to only affect the distribution or delivery part of your bill, it will not affect your relationship with the Clean Power Alliance.”
The Edison company spokesman agrees … the letter should have made it clear that the rate change is for delivery only … not for the power generated by the Clean Power Alliance that is delivered by Edison.
And he winced at the term KBUU used last week to describe the inaccurate letter.
We called it deceitful.
It was not deceitful … but it was not accurate … and it certainly was not written in a way that any customer could decipher.
It did not mention the Clean Power Alliance at all …
And it did not make clear to recipients that … all in all … this is a rate increase … and not just an adjustment in what you are charged at which hour.
