Southern California Edison explains public safety power shutoffs, says improvements underway

Southern California Edison (SCE) told the Fillmore City Council on Jan. 28 that public safety power shutoffs, or PSPS events, remain a necessary but imperfect tool to reduce wildfire risk and said it is expanding grid-hardening and customer resources.

SCE’s local government relations manager, Natalie Lones, presented an overview of the utility’s wildfire mitigation plan, saying SCE has installed covered conductor, deployed weather stations and high-definition wildfire cameras, and stood up community resource centers including one in Fillmore.

Lones said SCE has completed ‘‘over 6,000 miles of covered conductor’’ and deployed more than ‘‘14,000 critical care backup batteries to our medical baseline customers.’’ She described covered conductor as ‘‘a coated or insulated wire’’ and said studies estimate it ‘‘is about 70% more effective in reducing the chance of a significant wildfire’’ compared with bare wire. She emphasized that covered conductor is faster and less costly to install than undergrounding: SCE’s materials compared covered…