SCE Files A Report On Blackouts That Misleads CPUC
Written by 991KBU on November 1, 2018
The amazing saga of the Southern California Edison intentional power outages continues.
Two weeks ago … the power company flexed its new power … and issued warnings to Malibu … that Santa Ana winds could possibly cause them to purposefully shut off power.
Not just Malibu … also well as a broad swath of southern California.
Malibu residents might recall that the winds beat them to it … and the 60 mile per hour gusts took out the electricity over 70 percent of Malibu that Monday October 16th.
Yesterday … the utility met its state required deadline to file a report on the windstorm with the state … on how it handled its new PSPS preemptive blackouts program.
And that report was as error-prone as the PSPS rollout . and the storm related power outages.
Edison’s initial effort ended up with Malibu being given … first … two all-clear notices … then a hurry-up warning that Malibu was all of a sudden on the possible blackout list right at that minute … then that warning was revoked on one part of the city . … but not in the other.
All of that was in the midst of a not-that-big-wind-event that managed to take out transmission and distribution lines serving all of Malibu except the Point Dume area… some places for more than 12 hours.
The report filed with the state glosses over that .. and says the company communicated with Malibu officials frequently.
It does not say that those communications were wrong half the time.
It also points out that SCE got dozens of news media inquiries … but neglects to point out that many of those phone calls were not returned … or answered with inaccurate information.
Communication warnings about blackouts is important … the city … the communications companies … the water district … the fire department … they all need time to get generators … trucks and employees in place if an intentional blackout is coming.
The Edison report also blames what it calls an unusual storm that took it by surprise.
The National Weather Service had called for those exact winds … three days before they arrived.
Bottom line …. utility company issued late and contradictory notices that it was planning to turn off the power in Malibu during our first … comparatively mild Santa Ana of the year.
That nature blew out the power at windspeeds that were far lower than a reasonable threshold for intentional outages…. remember SCE saying they would hardly ever throw the switch?
And that the SCE intentional blackout plan was as rickety as their regular power supply system in Malibu.
We’ve asked the company to explain why their official report to the state is at odds with their track record.
No answers yet.
