First published in the Aug. 4 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
Despite some recent power outages, Southern California Edison reported some improvement in its services to La Cañada Flintridge residents during the past year as the utility company continues to install new equipment to address the issue of unplanned electrical interruptions.
Marissa Castro-Silvati, government relations manager for Edison, went before the City Council Tuesday and presented the company’s annual reliability report and also notified stakeholders of an upcoming town hall meeting to discuss recent outages at the Berkshire and Flintridge circuits, which are two of the 22 circuits in the city, and projects the company is working on to address the electrical problems that have affected residents for years.
The meeting is scheduled to take place during the second week of September.
“We’re hoping to make it a town hall and open house, so it’ll be an opportunity for the residents and businesses to join us that evening to learn a little bit more about our resources and programs and to have one-on-one engagement with our customers,” Castro-Silvati said.
According to Albert Diaz, Edison’s manager for the Monrovia district, La Cañada Flintridge experienced longer periods of time with unexpected power outages than other areas but did see improvement when compared to the previous year’s numbers.
LCF customers averaged 245 minutes of unplanned power interruption last year, a figure that is 10 fewer than in 2020. Edison customers tend to average about 180 minutes, and Diaz attributes the disparity to the fact that the entire city is a high wildfire zone. The company has revised its policies in the past few years and implemented additional safety measures to prevent wildfires in those areas, which can lengthen the time to resolve outages.
Diaz added that last year’s issue with the Haskell Circuit, which is the largest line in the city, contributed the high average. LCF experienced as many as 16 outages, nine of which occurred along the Haskell circuit last summer, and it prompted Edison to send dozens of technicians to fix the issues.
The incidents also bumped the average number of times service was unexpectedly interrupted to 1.8 in LCF after having 1.6 the previous year. Customers across all of Edison’s power grid averaged only 1.1 unplanned outages in 2021.
Diaz he was happy to report that Edison seems to have resolved the issue on the Haskell circuit with a 91% reduction in the number of minutes of interruption for each customer.
Another positive note was the average number of times service is momentarily lost for less than five minutes went down significantly in LCF from 2.8 minutes in 2020 to 1.4 minutes in 2021.
Diaz credits the installation of fast-acting fuses to the improved performances of Edison’s circuits in throughout the city. The fuses help isolate the incident to nearby neighborhoods rather than shut off the entire circuit, which not only lessens the number of customers impacted but reduces the amount of work and time for technicians to investigate the matter.
Edison planned to install 50 fast-acting fuses in the city by the end of the year, and Diaz said that the work is about 80% complete.
“That seems to be a good remedy to isolate and help get things up quickly,” said Mayor Keith Eich, who looks forward to the town hall meeting next month.
