Malibu City Councilmember suggests the city provide more resources to residents affected during a PSPS
By Barbara Burke
Special to The Malibu Times
“We know being without power for an extended period can be a hardship for our customers and we don’t make these decisions lightly, however public safety is paramount,” said Reggie Kumar, spokesperson for Southern California Edison. “We work closely with local officials whenever we need to turn off power to ensure the safety of our system, which includes making sure our customers have resources available when their power is out.”
Kumar referred to SCE’s Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS), which temporarily shut off power to neighborhoods or areas during dangerous weather conditions to prevent the company’s electric system from becoming a source of ignition, an action the company characterizes as a “measure of last resort for keeping customers and their communities safe.”
Kumar chatted with The Malibu Times about the criterion the company uses to determine whether, when and where to implement a PSPS. Kumar said the resources the company provides during such a power outage, details concerning how customers can stay informed during outages and the scientific and meteorological data that SCE uses to inform its decisions to turn off power.
“There are a number of things that go into determining when we need to turn off power for public safety,” he said. “That includes information we get from our weather stations and wildfire cameras and people in the field.”
PSPS decisions are based on data gathered from fire scientists and meteorologists forecasting dangerous wildfire conditions in addition to real-time information from their crews. The company considers a PSPS when weather and fire experts forecast dangerous conditions, based on internal models and external weather models, as well as National Weather Service forecasts, alerts and warnings.
Such conditions include strong winds, very dry vegetation and low humidity. Scientific data informs that when those conditions are combined, they create the risk of flying debris or other damage to SCE’s wires and equipment and could cause a fire with the potential to spread rapidly. For each PSPS decision, the company evaluates whether a shutoff is needed and whether it can safely reduce the number of customers who lose power.
An SCE team is led by an incident commander who undergoes continual training and is responsible for all shutoff decisions. If the weather report is inconclusive, SCE waits for additional weather reports. The company evaluates twice-daily weather reports to see if the weather pattern has shifted. The team conducts as many field assessments as feasible before notifying customers and confers with the National Geographic Area Coordination Center about fire danger risk, Kumar said. If the forecast becomes more precise, the team updates the list of circuits that might be impacted. If the weather pattern has weakened or shifted away from forecasting a high fire risk, the team cancels the contemplated PSPS.
For many Malibuites, the rationale underlying the PSPS decisions is unclear. The legendary power shutoff that lasted over the Thanksgiving holiday in 2021 comes to mind. In that PSPS, more than 80,000 households and 100 electrical circuits in five counties were shut down the night before Thanksgiving. That decision was made when there were sustained winds of more than 50 mph and gusts of more than 75 mph and Bravo 69’s anemometerreportedly measured winds speeds reaching 80 miles per hour.
Most Malibu residents got their power back on the night of Thanksgiving, but others in Malibu and many Topanga residents were without power until late on Friday afternoon. Many residents were without cell and phone line communications during the power outage.
When SCE representatives appeared before the Malibu City Council to address the issues, many irate citizens made comments.
SCE representative Jill Anderson, who was in charge of that PSPS said, “We’ve been doing our best to manage through very extreme weather. We recognize we need to do better.”
She stated that SCE starts coordinating with telecom providers before power is turned off so they can mobilize as they are required to provide backup power, and use mobile generators deployed to the area.
“If Malibu experienced a telecom outage, telecom didn’t deploy.” Anderson said.
Why some circuits have more PSPS orders
“It’s my understanding that the Serra and Cuthbert circuits are often turned off because those circuits extend up into the mountains and SCE officials are concerned about downed power lines when no one is around to observe them or if they occur in the middle of the forest,” Malibu City Councilmember Bruce Silverstein said. “Given that the power grid is all interconnected, what I don’t understand is why doesn’t SCE bring power down the Pacific Coast Highway through other circuits for the affected areas. I’ve asked that SCE come to talk with the City Council for a couple of months about PSPS, but they haven’t done so.”
A review of SCE maps shows that Cuthbert circuit is from Latigo Cyn Road to Bansall Drive, and from PCH about one mile inland. Serra circuit runs through Malibu Canyon to Seaver Drive inland to Mulholland Highway.
“The PSPS incident management team does review options for supplying customers with power from different circuits to keep them energized,” Kumar stated, discussing a process known as “load rolling,” that moves the electrical load from a high risk circuit to a less hazard-prone one.
“SCE often uses Community Resource Centers and Community Crew Vehicles during a PSPS event and we determine where to send them based on the number of customers impacted by an event,” Kumar said. “In extremely high-wind events we favor using our community resource centers, which are indoors, over our community crew vehicles, which are outdoors, to keep our customers and team members safe from the effects of blowing debris.”
He elaborated that “Our CCVs and CRCs offer resiliency kits containing a solar charger and information on resiliency programs, non-perishable snacks and water. SCE also provides ice vouchers to 7-Eleven stores for one bag of ice up to 20 lbs.”
Kumar pointed out that there is a 7-Eleven with a Malibu zip code located at 18541 Pacific Coast Highway. That’s the 7-Eleven at Pacific Coast Highway at Topanga Canyon Boulevard. Although that may benefit Malibu residents in far East Malibu, it is not of help to all Malibu residents in its 21-mile-long community.
When asked why a community resource center was not opened in Malibu’s latest PSPS this past December, Kumar explained, “Since the Michael Landon Community Center in Malibu was not available from Dec. 8-10, we opened a community resource center in Calabasas.”
The City of Malibu’s role in helping Malibuites affected by a PSPS
“If there is a power shutoff the city coordinates with the Sheriff’s Department and SCE and gets information to residents,” Silverstein said. “The city has some generators to put into place. Although as a general matter I don’t favor the city providing help when only some residents are affected by a situation where homeowners can do something to prepare for an occurrence, this instance does call for helping residents affected by a PSPS because SCE turns off power to protect all the residents from the risk of a wildfire. Therefore, I think the city should provide dry ice to Malibu residents who are affected by shut-offs if SCE doesn’t do so.”
Readers who are interested in the meteorological and scientific data that SCE officials use as part of the analysis concerning when to announce and implement a PSPS, can read the company’s PSPS Technical Paper entitled “Quantitative & Qualitative Factors for PSPS Decision-making” here:
Of course, the proverbial “big elephant in the room” concerns SCE undergrounding electrical poles in high wildfire risk areas so as to avoid any risk of wire or downed poles igniting.
Although at the City Council meeting concerning the Thanksgiving 2021 PSPS, SCE stated that option was “on the table, to date, there has been no appreciable progress toward taking those steps.”