The transformer explosion/ fire in Point Dume is evidence Southern California Edison (SCE) has a serious, dangerous problem with its equipment in Malibu. We need more than a “we’re working on it” explanation.
The problem here is far bigger than the explosion — and yes, dear SCE spokesman, it was an explosion; I personally saw it blow up. A brand-new transformer exploded and burned, two hours after being switched on. New electrical components spectacularly fail sometimes — that’s life.
The avoidable disaster here was the multiple power surges and outages that oscillated through Malibu both before and after the explosion. Our power failed, returned, dimmed, flickered and swayed — both before and after the explosion. Five outages in one day.
My Internet modem was fried by a power surge before the explosion. That’s the third electrical component we’ve lost in these six weeks of SCE power surges and outages.
SCE’s delivery systems are seriously deficient. A modern electric company must be able to isolate equipment failures by automatic or remote control. It must provide stable electrical current before and after switching operations. SCE has again showed it cannot do that. SCE’s distribution system in Malibu is not only old, it is poorly maintained and worse, it is poorly designed. It does not have enough switching capacity to allow safe and reliable switching around component failures, putting employees and the general public at risk.
SCE is about to undertake a multimillion-dollar safety and reliability project in Malibu, as part of the settlement we won at the CPUC following the 2007 fire. They are currently doing a comprehensive survey of all the junk hanging on their decrepit, 70-year-old poles.
Put this on the agenda at the next council meeting. The City of Malibu should hire an engineering firm to examine the SCE reconstruction plan, before it is built. SCE must give us their plan to fix this mess, and we should have an outside expert examine it. SCE’s ineptitude was a primary cause of the half-billion dollar 2007 fire. That was seven years ago and the situation has markedly gotten worse since then. SCE cannot be trusted, as they have amply demonstrated.
Hans Laetz