Southern California Edison tells Sierra Madre council outages rose in 2025; company points to PSPS and weather

Southern California Edison representatives told the Sierra Madre City Council on Oct. 1 that electrical interruptions affecting the city increased in 2025 and that wildfire-mitigation measures and weather contributed to the change.

The utility gave a slide presentation that compared Sierra Madre circuits with Edison territory as a whole and said Sierra Madre showed higher frequency and more momentary interruptions (MAFE) in 2024 and during 2025. "My personal commitment is to improve reliability," said Jennifer, Southern California Edison district manager for the San Gabriel Valley, as she reviewed circuit-level data and causes.

Why it matters: Council members said repeated outages and PSPS events have immediate public-safety and medical impacts for residents and businesses. Edison told the council that six of the city's eight circuits are in areas subject to PSPS because of elevated wildfire risk, and that settings designed to trip faster to avoid ignition can increase the number of interruptions and make root-causes harder to find.

Details of the presentation: Edison said reliability is measured with metrics it calls SADI (outage duration), SAIFI/SAFE (frequency), and MAFE (momentary interruptions). Causes listed on Edison slides included weather (wind and storm activity), public-safety power shutoffs, equipment failure, vegetation and animal contacts, and operations. The company described capital investments—underground and overhead conductor replacement and pole replacement—intended to harden the grid.

Council follow-up requests and city concerns: Council members pressed Edison for circuit-level details, percent of covered conductor installed, and whether annual presentations can exclude the minutes contributed by PSPS events to avoid skewing the SADI calculation. Edison agreed to provide additional data, including which circuits are PSPS-designated, percent of covered conductor by circuit, and historical response-time information. The utility also agreed to provide the city manager with access to its PSPS portal so city staff can see status updates.

What was not decided: The council did not adopt any regulatory or contractual action at the meeting. Edison offered to share more detailed reliability and capital-project material and to work with the city on communication steps.

Looking ahead: Edison said it plans capital work in the area, including more covered conductor in 2025–2026, and warned that some short-term increases in interruptions may accompany protective settings used during elevated fire risk. Council members asked staff to collect Edison’s follow-up materials and return with them when available.