Public Safety
Utilities warn of possible Southern California power shutoffs
SCE is considering preventive outages for 9,990 Riverside County customers, while SDG&E has alerted more than 35,000 customers as heat and wildfire risk increase.
Southern California Edison is considering preventive power shutoffs Friday and Saturday for 9,990 customers in Riverside County south of the San Bernardino National Forest, Bloomberg reported October 2. San Diego Gas & Electric has also identified more than 35,000 customers in foothill communities who could be affected if hazardous weather conditions develop.
What it means locally
The possible outages are public-safety power shutoffs, a precaution utilities may use to reduce the chance that electrical equipment ignites a wildfire during dangerous weather. They are warnings, not confirmed outages, and customer counts and timing can change as forecasts are updated. Bloomberg reported triple-digit heat in parts of the region and a 97-degree forecast for downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, while statewide electricity demand was projected to exceed 43.2 gigawatts by Tuesday. Customers in potentially affected areas should check their utility's official outage map and alerts for current information. The accompanying photograph shows Southern California Edison transmission-tower work in November 2010 and is archival; it does not depict current fire conditions or an outage.
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