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Southern California Edison briefs Redlands council on wildfire mitigation, PSPS and planned communication improvements
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Summary
Southern California Edison told the Redlands City Council it is expanding wildfire mitigation investments, sectionalization technology and customer programs after January wind‑driven outages; Edison acknowledged communication problems and said it will improve outage maps and notifications.
Southern California Edison (SCE) briefed the Redlands City Council on wildfire‑risk mitigation investments and the use of public safety power shutoffs (PSPS) as a tool to prevent utility‑caused fires during high‑wind conditions.
Mark Cloud, SCE government relations manager, told the council SCE must balance wildfire risk reduction with customer impacts and that PSPS is “a tool of last resort.” Cloud said SCE has invested in grid hardening, covered conductor, sectionalization equipment and local weather stations to improve decision‑making. He said the company is also required by the California Public Utilities Commission to have a PSPS plan and that the utility is working to reduce the need for PSPS over time.
Cloud acknowledged widespread customer disruption during the most recent large wind event and said, “I’m so sorry you encountered that,” describing the PSPS process and the need for in‑person inspections before circuits are reenergized. He described customer programs including instant rebates on portable generators and battery power stations through the SCE Marketplace and said the company deploys community resource centers in impacted areas during outages.
Several speakers during public comment criticized SCE’s implementation and communications. Dennis Bell said residents “were not happy with Edison’s hodgepodge fashion and duration of power shutoffs” and that he did not receive notification before the outage. Bell also said “Edison shareholders need to” pay for fire damages rather than ratepayers. Michael Pazner and other residents urged the council and SCE to consider expanded undergrounding of lines; Pazner said the last event demonstrated that overhead lines are more vulnerable to wind.
Council members pressed SCE on map accuracy and targeted de‑energization. Cloud said SCE aims to make outages more surgical over time by deploying sectionalization technology and more local monitoring devices, but that circuitry complexity and physics limit how quickly that can be achieved. He also said outage maps and notification systems have improved over previous years but that the January event was unusually large and strained real‑time data updates; SCE encouraged customers to sign up for email and text alerts and for councils to rely on the company’s PSPS web pages and outage map for current information.
City officials offered to continue working with SCE to improve local communications. In the Q&A the council and staff discussed SCE programs and the potential for the city to post SCE resource center locations and marketplace links on the city website during future events.
What was not decided: The briefing was for information and discussion; the council did not take formal action or vote on any SCE proposals at the meeting.
Provenance: Mark Cloud’s presentation and opening remarks begin at transcript block starting at 2577.005; public comments from Dennis Bell appear at transcript block starting at 3473.9648; follow‑up Q&A and council requests run through transcript blocks 3515–4050.
