Southern California Edison Addresses Beverly Hills Power Outages

BEVERLY HILLS, CA — Representatives of Southern California Edison addressed recent power outages at a Beverly Hills City Council special meeting Tuesday, but were unable to avert a potential city complaint to state authorities.

Residents have become increasingly frustrated about the frequency of recent power outages in the city, particularly in the Trousdale area, according to Mayor Lili Bosse. Residents in Trousdale have reported 17 outages in the last two years, a number that seems unacceptable to the council.

SCE is conducting repairs and upgrades in Beverly Hills, but it might not happen on the city's preferred timeline, said SCE representatives Luis Ortiz and Diane Forte. Many council members expressed frustration at a seeming lack of action given some 38 percent of SCE power outages in 2021 were caused by equipment failure, according to Ortiz.

Analyses of outages and equipment inform SCE's priority in allocating funding for repairs, and Beverly Hills does not land in the top 10, Ortiz said at Tuesday's meeting. Even still, Beverly Hills is poised to see a number of repairs, like circuit upgrades and equipment hardening, before Dec. 2023. Visit SCE's website to view all ongoing improvement projects in Beverly Hills.

Many council members supported submitting a formal complaint with the California Public Utilities Commission and contact their regional and statewide representatives about SCE's seeming failure to address recent outages.

Bosse also asked representatives to return to council in November, a month before a wave of repairs is scheduled to be complete in Beverly Hills.