SCE Addresses Calabasas Power Outages Caused By Fire Risk, Rain

CALABASAS, CA — Representatives from Southern California Edison explained the circumstances of their power safety shutoffs on Thanksgiving at Wednesday's Calabasas city council meeting amid local frustration.

Calabasas saw power outages on Nov. 25, initiated by Southern California Edison to avoid an equipment-ignited wildfire. At least 80,000 customers temporarily lost power on Thanksgiving day, Nov. 25, said Diane Forte, government relations manager for SCE. In Calabasas, 2,200 customers lost power.

The outages, dubbed Public Safety Power Shutoffs, are implemented by SCE when there is a chance SCE equipment could ignite a fire given weather conditions. November's outages were prompted by a multi-day red flag warning issued by the National Weather Service due to risky fire weather.

The weather conditions so horrible on Nov. 25 they were an "anomaly," said John Abbott, operations supervisor for SCE. High wind speeds and low humidity made a perfect storm for wildfire spread, should SCE equipment ignite. Calabasas saw wind speeds as high as 48.5 mph.

SCE also addressed other recent outages, including those prompted by storming on Dec. 30 and an outage on Jan. 5-6.

SCE is making efforts to avoid PSPS in the future, including insulating bare wire and covering conductors to protect them from wind and vegetation, segmenting energy circuits to better localize shutoffs and improving customer outreach, senior manager for SCE Amir Noori said at an Agoura Hills council meeting.

SCE has four projects preliminarily planned for Calabasas in 2022, including three conductor replacements.

Abbott said SCE conducts annual inspections to identify where repairs should occur. SCE completed 812 inspections in Calabasas in 2021, Abbott said. They also installed eight weather stations in Calabasas.

Council members and members of the public emphasized how frustrating recent outages have been for residents. They specifically discussed the Braewood community and Saratoga Hills.

"Whether it's a right or wrong perception, it does feel like we are inundated with power outages at a level that is somewhat outside the caliber of our surrounding community ... We've kind of reached a breaking point in our community, to be very candid. People are very very frustrated with the number of power outages we've had," said Dallas Lawrence, speaking on behalf of the Community Association of Saratoga Hills.

Council member Alicia Weintraub said she was more frustrated with SCE's communication than the actual outages. She was frustrated about a lack of action given SCE has been aware of Calabasas' specific issues for years, Weintraub said.

"I understand everything that Edison is saying and preventing wildfires. My frustration comes down to the level of communication. There were residents truly in the dark that could not get ahold of anyone to find out what is going on because in addition to losing power they're losing internet, they're losing all ways to communicate, which is something very scary," Weintraub said.

Council member James Bozajian said he felt SCE was not properly prepared for outages on the scale of Nov. 25.