State About To OK Malibu Blackout Plans

The state of California is about to give the local electric company permission to black out portions of Southern California whenever it gets really windy.

Next week in San Francisco … the California Public Utilities Commission will vote on a plan to formalize procedures for pre-emptive safety power outages.

And make no mistake … Malibu will get its electric power shut off.

Southern California Edison last fall alerted Malibu that the big Santa Ana wind storm it was expecting meant the power had to be shut off in Malibu.

Edison has done that in small rural places before … but this was the first time that a major city was going to be blacked out as a preventative method during fire weather.

The power company could not provide details about how big the blackout would be … how long the power would be out … or just exactly what weather conditions would trigger the blackout.

There were also no plans made to keep traffic lights working … to notify people to open the garage doors or electric gates … or to keep critical infrastructure like public and private water pumps running.

It was a planning disaster.

Since then … the power company has installed a weather command post and installed high-tech long-term weather forecasting computers.

Edison now thinks it will get several days notice before a major windstorm its specific neighborhoods.

The regulators at the California Public Utilities Commission are now about to approve a protocol for blacking out Malibu and other areas like this.

They will require Edison to notify customers of planned de-energization as soon as practicable before the event.

To make a plan and disclose it.

Edison will be required to ensure that critical facilities such as hospitals, emergency centers, fire departments, and water pumps are aware of the planned de-power blackouts.

And to offer to provide them with available generators or batteries if they do not have adequate existing backup power resources.

After the de-energization event, IOUs shall assist these critical facility customers to evaluate their needs for backup power and determine whether additional equipment is needed.

To address public safety impacts of a de-energization event, Edson may provide generators to critical facilities that are not well prepared for a power shut off.

The plan goes for a vote at the Public Utilities Commission next Wednesday in San Francisco.