A power blackout rolled through sections of Malibu on March 19 at 3:30 p.m. The outage was part of one of the “rolling” blackouts that have been affecting various communities throughout the state during California’s current power crisis. So, how often can we expect to go without power?
Rolling blackouts will occur “whenever the state declares that we’re in a power emergency and there’s not enough power in the state for customers,” said Mark Olson, regional manager of west side cities for Southern California Edison.
A rolling blackout is “predetermined in an emergency plan,” Olson continued, and affects “small sections that will be out for about an hour.” Olson explained that blackouts are “randomly dispersed throughout the community.” During a power emergency, various communities linked to the state’s power grid are chosen at random, and then areas within those communities are blacked out for about an hour, Olson said.
There is always a potential for power to go out in a small section of a community whenever there’s an emergency, he added.
There’s no accurate way to predict what areas will be hit by an outage at any particular time. “The state might not let us know beforehand,” Olson said, “because they might not know.” Besides, he pointed out, “For security reasons, the state doesn’t want to announce in advance where a blackout might occur.”
The City of Malibu has no plans for dealing with emergencies that might arise during a blackout. The distribution of power isn’t up to the city, points out Hap Holmwood, emergency preparedness coordinator for the city — and neither is law enforcement.
“The only concern that we observe is that the sheriffs have to deal with traffic,” said Holmwood. “Other than that, there’s not much the city can do. It’s out of the city’s hands.”
The Sheriff’s Department already has plans in place for dealing with blackout-induced traffic snarls.
The department has “identified key signals that need to be manned by deputies” when power is out, said sheriff’s Lt. Thom Bradstock at the Lost Hills substation. Deputies “prioritize” problem intersections, but leave intersections alone where there is “not a high volume of cross traffic.”
Bradstock reminds the public that motorists are “required to stop [at a nonfunctioning traffic light] as if it were a flashing red light,” and take turns passing through the intersection. A flashing red light is the same as a stop sign.
He was optimistic that, as summer approaches, and with it more power outages, the “public will become more familiar with procedures” and that traffic will move relatively smoothly.