Southern California Edison warns public-safety power shutoffs will continue; outlines hardening, customer programs

Ian Anderson, Southern California Edison’s government affairs representative for the area, told the Thousand Oaks City Council on Aug. 26 that public-safety power shutoffs are expected to occur more frequently and described a mix of infrastructure upgrades and customer programs intended to reduce fire risk and to help residents cope. Anderson said PSPS events occur when the utility “temporarily shuts off power to reduce the risk of a fire caused by that utility’s equipment.” He told the council that decisions to de-energize depend on a combination of factors including strong winds, dry vegetation and low humidity and are based on forecasts and real-time data. The utility presented its local work to harden the grid, reporting about 140 miles of “total hardening” in Thousand Oaks: 114 miles of covered conductor already completed, 22 miles of covered conductor pending and roughly 3.5 miles of targeted undergrounding. Anderson described two specific local projects: the Orchard circuit (about 3.9 overhead miles, roughly 2.5…