More than 16,000 households through San Bernardino County have had electrical power interruptions over the past three days, as extreme winds and fires have wreaked historic levels of havoc in neighboring Los Angeles County and other parts of Southern California.
More than 270,000 Southern California Edison customers in Southern California at some point today experienced power outages and 172,000 or thereabouts were without power as of 3 p.m. today.
The fluid nature of the outages and their wide geographical variance is demonstrated by the consideration that since midnight last night/this morning, 30,000 customers had their electricity service restored.
Southern California Edison was unable to say how many further outages beyond what had already occurred yesterday or Wednesday took place today.
The outages experienced in San Bernardino County, where there has been only limited instances of fire in the last four days, can be explicated by the precautions being taken by Southern California Edison to prevent from occurring here the intensity and magnitude of the conflagrations that have devastated portions of Los Angeles County, most notably in Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Eaton Canyon at the north end of Paradena and the Hurst Fire.
The Palisades Fire began Tuesday morning, originating in an area outside Southern California Edison’s service area. The Eaton Fire began Tuesday afternoon in SCE’s service area, as SCE has transmission facilities on the east side of Eaton Canyon. According to Southern California Edison, SCE’s distribution lines immediately to the west of Eaton Canyon were de-energized well before the reported start time of the fire, as part of what SCE calls its public safety power shutoff program, referred to by the acronym PSPS program. The Hurst Fire began late Tuesday evening. The reported ignition site for that fire is within the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s service area, and SCE has transmission facilities near the reported ignition site, leading to speculation that fire might have been sparked by a downed transmission line that was still live. The company is currently conducting a review of the event.
Given the intensity of the winds, Southern California Edison’s public safety power shutoff program is intended to prevent the sparking of fires by damaged or downed power lines in an area where extremely dry vegetation acts as kindling and prevailing meteorologic conditions will push the fire itself or embers in multiple directions, causing immediate and widespread migration of the flames.
According to SCE spokesman Jeff Manford, some of the outages in San Bernardino County came about because of, in a minority of cases, the destruction of the lines carrying electricity as a consequence of the high winds and, more often, as a consequence of the public safety power shutoff program.
While the high wind conditions persist, in most cases, the shutoffs have remained in place. In those areas where the wind conditions have alleviated, there has not been an immediate restoration of power, Manford said, because “Every line that is shut off has to be inspected to ensure it is not damaged and no debris is caught within the lines. We are reacting to the danger of windblown debris caught in the wires, which creates a spark hazard because the vegetation on the ground is so dry.”
Manford said the portion of the Southern California region subject to the high intensity winds has been flooded with “thousands of our workers” and those from other utility companies engaged in the inspections.
Manford said he and SCE in general are “not able to comment on specific locations or customers” who are yet without power because the “system we have in place is overwhelmed with outages.” He said Southern California Edison is prioritizing efforts to carry out the inspections and reinstitute service in those areas with hospitals in them.
Based upon Southern California Edison’s on-line outage location search function, outages in San Bernardino County that have come about as a result of wind damage and the public safety power shutoff program extend into Upland, Rancho Cucamonga, Fontana, Rosena Ranch, Rialto, San Bernardino, Redlands, Grand Terrace, Yucaipa, Oak Glen, Wildwood Canyon, along Mill Creek, Angeles Oaks, Smiley Park, Green Valley Lake, Running Springs, Lake Arrowhead, along Shake Creek, Cedar Glen, Blue Jay, Crestline, Cedar Pines Park, Summit Terrace, Lake Silverwood, north of Baldy Village, in Wrightwood, in Deer Haven between Phelan and Pinon Hills north of Wildhorse Canyon and in Chino Hills.
According to SCE, “Safety remains our number one priority for customers, employees and our communities. This extreme weather event is a rapidly evolving situation. While the most severe winds have started to abate, this weather is expected to continue through the early part of the weekend. Given the unsafe conditions for electric power restorations, customers may experience several days of outages. SCE will restore service as soon as it is safe to do so. The company will be supported by other utilities through our industry’s mutual assistance program, a hallmark of collaboration in the utility sector.”
According to SCE, as of January 8 at 4 p.m., 413,639 SCE customers were without power. Of those, 183,186 were from public safety power shutoff and 230,453 were related to the windstorm and fire damage to transmission facilities.