SCE Sends Malibu A New Official With Incorrect Answers To Try To Explain Intentional Blackout – It Does Not Go Well

Southern California Edison sent out an official to give the official explanation for the October intentional power outage in Malibu Monday night.

He did not tell the truth.

And this time … the city council was not buying the power company’s inaccurate excuses. 

Joshua Torrez … a senior government relations officials with the power company … explained the 23-hour intentional blackout – during a mild Santa Ana breeze –  on Oct. 19-20 this way:

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“We experienced strong, wind conditions that posed a significant public safety concern.”

No, we didn’t, said Malibu city council members.   And they have the data to back that up: there were no strong winds in Malibu.

And the weak winds that we did experience had already subsided long before the power was turned off.

Edison’s own data proves that.

Weather gauges have been stationed all around Malibu .. by SCE.  And they are connected to National Weather Service databases.  

The SCE circuit maps are also publicly posted.  This data is available to the public … and to reporters.

Match the maps to the data and anyone can see what Malibu people experienced … there were moderate winds that Saturday morning, October 19th.  And they had already died down to nothing by 10 a-m … when the power was cut off … after 12 noon.

And that the peak winds were never stronger than SCE’s own threshold for triggering protective power blackouts.

Peak winds up in nearly all of the inhabited Malibu canyons did not exceed 34 miles an hour that weekend … a mere breeze by Malibu standards… by any measure.

But even if there were stronger winds up in the hills … it was clear that those winds did not develop along the coast.  And council members also argued that SCE should have been able to segregate light wind areas from windy places.

City councilman Steve Uhring told the power company that it was obvious … the populated area of Malibu did not experience strong winds in the hours leading up to the power cut.

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“Power went out around 12:15 on Friday afternoon. 

“There was no wind.

“There was no wind Friday afternoon. 

“There was no wind Friday evening. 

“There was no wind Saturday.

“Saturday around 10 o’clock, one of your guys in a truck pulls up in front of my house so I go and talk to him and say ‘what are you guys doing?’

“And he says ‘I am checking for the wind.’ There was no wind.”  

That led the SCE spokesman to repeat this old standby of an SCE explanation … that the winds in Malibu were not as strong as winds further up the canyons. 

But Edison ’s own network of wind gauges show that to be not true. … that did not happen.  

The wind gauge at Pepperdine University hit only 45 miles an hour that morning… just before 9 a-m …. far below what is seen in even a moderate Santa Ana.   Power was cut there more than three hours later … when the winds had subsided to 34 mile per hour gusts.

The wind gauge at LA fire camp 8 … often the windiest place in the mountains north of Malibu … gusts hit 65 miles an hour early that morning.  By afternoon, they had dropped to below 40.

SCE did not turn the power off until that afternoon … after the wind gusts had subsided to well below that level. 

And that was way up on the mountaintops … the wind gusts in Malibu neighborhoods like Point Dume were maxing out at less than 10 miles per hour. 

Last night … city councilman Bruce Silverstein questioned why the developed neighborhoods of Malibu need to be lumped in with more-hazardous and windier locations up in the hills.

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“I understand that the winds in the canyons and the mountains are really the problem, and we may not be experiencing those winds here, they are experiencing them there, are we re on the same circuit.

“Why are we on the same circuit?

“Why can’t the circuits be gerrymandered or reconfigured so that the circuits where the people live” could be cut off from the hazardous areas?

SCE has been claiming for years that it has been investing in technology that allows it to split circuits into chunks … by remote control .. to provide precise controls over where it cuts the power. 

But that system was not used in Malibu this month. 

City council member Paul Gristanti said he was on a conference call meeting Monday with Steve Powell … president of the Souther California Edison Company …. 

And Grisanti told the SCE president what everyone in Malibu experienced … the power company killed the power after only moderate winds, and only after they had already passed thru.

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“Your own weather stations were reporting that the wind had already peaked and were decreasing by the time that they started the PSPS (Public Safety Power Shutoff, the official SCE term for “intentional power blackout”).

“And they never went back up.   So I think that President Powell was not happy when he heard that.”

Torres told the city council that there might be some wind devices up the canyon that “Mr. Hans does not know about.”

There aren’t.

KBUU radio has mapped the local power system … and can tell you exactly where the company’s wind gauges are.

And Edison has also publicly marked exactly where its wind gauges are …  it has made a big deal about publicly posting the wind gauge maps and their data on official National Weather Service maps. 

Back at the city council meeting last night… City Council member Steve Uhring said he was most concerned that the Southern California Edison Company turns off the power to Caltrans traffic signals.

Hed had a warning for the power company executive – about the company’s refusal to put lifesaving generates out at traffic lights:

70724 BACKUP LIGHTS STEVE

UHRING: “I’m going to ask Southern California Edison, if you turn off the power, you pay to put those generators out and make sure our stoplights are running so we don’t lose any residents. You think about that. 

SCE EXECUTIVE: “We cannot commit to that. 

UHRING: “I’m not asking you to commit to it tonight, I’m asking you to think about it, because if somebody gets killed, we’re going to blame you.

“And it may be cheaper for you to put the pay for the generators to pay for a life. So you think about that.

SCE EXECUTIVE: “I’m letting you know our policy, we do not provide backup generation during PSPS events.”

And the SCE executive is right about that. 

The California Public Utilities Commission gave the company a giant free pass six years ago … permission to turn off the electricity without regard to traffic lights, or water pumps, or any other essential life-saving equipment that runs on electricity.

And then there is the issue of why SCE waited all night and half a day …  to turn the power back on.  There was no local wind to begin you, and residents spent a night in the still darkness, with no wind and no power.

Torres repeated … people may not have realized that power needed to be cut down the line … up a canyon.

70725 POWER RIGGINS PATROL

“In some situations, there are segments that can only be patrolled by aircraft,.

“Also we need daylight. We cannot do patrols at night, cause we’re not gonna be able to see the damage equipment. 

“So if the weather conditions clear up at 4 o’clock or 5 o’clock in the afternoon, we probably gonna have to wait until sunrise to patrol the line.”

If so,… that apparently is a new SCE policy.

For decades … there power company has been able to patrol its overhead lines in the dark.  The company has remote sensing equipment that can detect powerline damage from blocks away.

And SCE has a history of more than 100 years of fixing bad power circuits no matter what the weather or time of day.

Mayor Doug Stewart wondered why power was cut on the Cuthbert Circuit … near Paradise Cove and Point Dume … when it was clear there were no strong winds anywhere there. …. as opposed to the Serra Circuit … which reaches up Malibu Canyon … and where strong winds might have been buffeting that uninhabited area..

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“So why would you turn off their power (on the Cuthbert Circuit)? 

“I could understand (the Serra Circuit), but Cuthbert was isolated. Maybe there are some spots in there where there is wind that I didn’t see.

“But here’s the other part. You’ve got sophisticated weather stations all over the place so you know where the wind didn’t blow. 

“So why would you wait eight hours to go check that circuit when it didn’t detect any wind?”

The power company spokesman had no new information… none. 

Nor is he empowered to make any commitments. 

Southern California Edison doers not answer to the Malibu city council. 

As amply evidenced last night.