SCE Prepares for New Round of Santa Ana Winds

More Santa Ana winds are coming into an already devastated Southern California next week. To keep communities safe, SCE is again preparing for Public Safety Power Shutoffs.

SCE meteorologists expect PSPS conditions starting Monday morning and continuing through at least early Wednesday morning, with the possibility they will extend later in the week. About 172,697 customers are under consideration for PSPS in Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura Counties, a much smaller number than during the most recent windstorms.

"We know these PSPS outages are a hardship for our customers, and we have done a lot of work on our system to reduce the number of customers we have had to shut off in these events," said Incident Commander Anthony Edeson. "We only turn off power when absolutely necessary to protect our communities."

SCE warns of more Santa Ana winds coming into an already devastated Southern California on Monday and Tuesday.

To stay up to date on PSPS and wind-related repair outages, visit SCE's online interactive outage map at sce.com/outagemap. A list of community resources is also available on the page.

If customers are shut off, SCE will attempt to restore electricity as soon as possible after the risky weather clears and after all power lines are inspected for damage. Typically this takes up to eight hours, but could take longer in areas in which daylight or helicopter assessments are needed to complete the inspections.

Where safely possible, SCE may restore power to customers temporarily if there are lulls in the weather. If the winds return, more shutoffs may be possible. In this case, customers will be notified that their power is restored but they are still being considered for additional shutoffs before the end of the windstorm.

Outage and High Winds Safety Tips

• If you see a downed power line, do not touch it or anything in contact with it. Stay at least 100 feet away and call 911 immediately.
• Remember to secure any temporary structures in your backyard or business, including backyard furniture and tents, as well as patio equipment and covers used in commercial settings.
• For additional information, visit Safety Tips for High Wind Conditions.

• Customers can review their contact information and PSPS notifications online by logging into their SCE account. Non-customers can sign up for alerts by visiting sce.com/pspsalerts.
• To help plan for potential PSPS, visit sce.com/pspsweather. This page identifies counties in SCE's service area that could be affected by dangerous weather conditions up to seven days in advance.
• PSPS is a measure of last resort to protect communities from wildfire. SCE uses 1,700 weather stations in the field for real-time reporting, and SCE crews actively patrol circuits before and during PSPS events to provide additional information regarding actual weather conditions.
• Why does my neighbor have power and I don't? Shut-off decisions are made based on power lines (circuits) and not neighborhoods. If segments of your circuit are at risk, and your circuit segment cannot be moved from the affected circuit, you could be impacted by a shutoff. Before any PSPS event, SCE has plans in place to reduce the number of customers affected and potentially move some customers from affected circuits. Customers who are being switched between circuits might experience a short outage of up to 10 minutes.
• Once a circuit is cleared for inspection, restoration times are typically up to eight hours. There could be delays if helicopter, drone or foot patrols are needed or if damage is found. Some circuits can only be safely inspected in daylight and that may lead to additional delays.

For more information, visit sce.com/psps.