UPDATE: SCE removed the power shutoff warning as of Friday, due to improving weather conditions.
Southern California Edison (SCE) has notified affected customers that it is considering a Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) in parts of Santa Barbara County due heightened wildfire risk.
This outage may begin as soon as 3:00 p.m. Wednesday, July 9, though it may occur earlier or later depending on actual weather conditions, and may last through the weekend.
Increased temperatures are expected to begin Tuesday, July 8, and last through Friday with coastal areas reaching above 80 degrees and triple digits expected in the interior valleys.
The PSPS areas under consideration include addresses along the coast from Point Conception to Naples, Painted Cave and Patterson/Turnpike/Calle Real/Highway 154 areas as well as neighborhoods in the Riviera, Eastside, Eucalyptus Hill, and into Montecito.
SCE states this would affect 3,921 customers in Santa Barbara County and that they have notified all residents/businesses who are in the area under consideration. To double check if you are affected, you can enter your address here.
PSPS is where SCE has the control to temporarily shut off power to neighborhoods during what they deem as “dangerous weather conditions” to prevent their electric system from becoming a source of ignition. SCE states these safety shutoffs are a measure of last resort for keeping you and your community safe.
Call SCE at 1-800-611-1911 or visit https://www.sce.com/outage-center/check-outage-status for more information on this potential outage.
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At times I simply stammer at the comments of “the public.” If SCE proceeds to supply power in high risk times they are damned. If they charge to maintain and inspect and replace infrastructure they are cursed. If they are given the responsibility to provide electricity to a hugely growing demand they are told they must do it quickly and without much cost. I absolutely agree that the Public Utilities Commission has been sucked into the influence of the public utilities they are supposed to regulate on our behalf. The fault in this is both with the PUC members who simply sold out, the politicians who appointed them, and the greed of the public utilities companies who discovered they could buy these folks off and improve their income. All this aside, the need to give warnings and shut down service at high risk moments seems more than demonstrated. Let’s move on to solutions (like more roof top solar production at the point of demand).
Or we should stop privatizing essential services so these shareholders and CEOs don’t make millions off of us.
Great on paper. Crap in reality. Why? Government is absurdly inefficient. They’ve got their hands full just with roads, for example. Add in our electrical system and it’s good night Irene.
Private businesses are far worse at providing services than government in nearly every case, and especially for essential services. Every time it’s been tried, it’s resulted in monumental failure.
truth!
Haven’t been to the DMV lately I guess. Or the County to get a building permit. Go check em out.
Basic – I did go “check out” the DMV recently, and maybe you should follow your own advice. It was my first renewal since turning 70, so I had to take the test, have a new photo taken, have my vision checked, etc. I expected to be there for hours. Instead, I was called immediately at my appointment time, found I had already taken the test online (I didn’t realize that the short quiz in the online tutorial WAS the test), completed the vision test, and was sent to a different line for the photo. With that, I was done – ten minutes after my appointment time. I realize that the DMV has become the poster child for government inefficiency, and deservedly so, but they’ve sure improved since the last time I had to go in. Let’s give credit where it’s due!
A public entity being slower than you like or, God forbid, having long lines, isn’t proof that privatizing these entities would be more efficient.
Cool.
Hate to break it to you, Spicoli, but poor reasoning skills aren’t “cool.”
Now imagine going to a private DMV corporation. Your rates increase by 10-25% every year for the same service then suddenly they cancel your license altogether because California has too many cars and too many people and they can make higher shareholder profits in another state. But they sold their CA branches to a VC company that will take on your license for double the rate. Ahh capitalism.
The DMV, owned by Meta. Sign in with your Facebook login in to renew your license. Fill out this fun quiz about yourself. It’s just for fun, don’t worry, we don’t store this information and build a profile of you. But you like Chevy’s you say? Here’s an ad for a chevy dealership near you and they’ll call you in 10 minutes.
It’s easy to point out what’s wrong with the DMV, but imagine if they also charged more money in order to make a profit and please shareholders. There’s no guarantee they would be more efficient, and I bet they would charge more.
Who does what they do more efficiently?
Difficult jobs, done well, require time and effort, both of which are anathema to profit.
Electrical power distribution industries have historically been able to deny financial responsibility of their substandard infrastructure that has caused hundreds of billions of dollars of wildfire damage, all while profiting hundreds of billions of dollars.
Their PR departments are forfeiting credibility by flooding customers inboxes with disingenuous notes about how concerned they are about our safety and well-being, without mentioning why they haven’t maintained their infrastructure that, in the last century (Edison, 139 years old, and PG&E 120) has destroyed billions of dollars of homes and numerous lives.
When will SoCalEdison upgrade its infrastructure instead of turning off all the power at the slightest wind gust?
When it doesn’t affect corporate executive bonuses.
Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. But if they do, rest-assured, you’ll be the one paying for it.
When we all agree to pay for it they will do it.
The innovation of the Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS or CYAPS) is a testament to the failure of power companies (Southern California Edison, PG&E, et al) to maintain their infrastructure.
Only since the recent billion-dollar lawsuits holding the electric utilities accountable did the PSPS start.
There is no other public utility that is a “fair weather” provider — not natural gas, not cable, not water, not internet, not gasoline, television, telephone, email, U.S. mail, your local trash guy, the guy who walks your dog, or any other provider that ceases service because it gets hot or windy.
If it is possible to walk on the moon and fly to Mars, it should be possible to run wires to houses safely on Earth.
If the current electrical providers are not willing or capable of providing reliable service, the monopoly should be given to another entity.
It’s not scheduled, just possible. But the forecast in my neighborhood, which is part of the affected area, doesn’t include high wind, and the temperatures aren’t really high, either. That’s what gets me. Do they have more accurate info than the NWS? Maybe they do, since Trump did his number on NOAA.
I think it is outrageous that public utilites, sudo government entities, have been given the power/liberty to shut off essential services at will, under the auspices of safety. What if I disagree with them on political or other issues, will they turn off my power?!?
“ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY” – Lord Acton
And to paraphrase a Benjamin Franklin quote: Those who would give up essential liberties for temporary safety end up with neither.
Southern California Edison should be sued – Let the Supreme court rule on this.
You really don’t understand how government and industry function.
Anonymous, I know more than you think I may know. Shame on you for your own arrogant assumptions.
My opinion is based on evidence. Evidence you continually provide.
You also don’t know how to thread replies.
Just got an email saying the alert was being cancelled due to improved weather. From the map on their website it looks like it’s just this eastern section, around Cielito, Sycamore Canyon, etc, that has been cancelled. The Naples to Gaviota area is still under alert, and also the 154 corridor.