After a virtual meeting Thursday with staff representatives of the Public Utilities Commission, Santa Clarita Mayor Bill Miranda said state regulators plan to send a letter to Southern California Edison backing the city’s concerns and asking for action sooner rather than later.
After enduring profane criticism from irate SCE customers without power for weeks due to Public Safety Power Shutoffs, the Santa Clarita City Council announced a closed-door meeting was scheduled with members of the PUC, which regulates SCE.
Frustrated city leaders were hoping to get help in spurring a sense of urgency they say they haven’t seen yet from the utility in dealing with the seemingly arbitrary power outages and the problems being caused for residents.
Miranda said he and Mayor Pro Tem Laurene Weste were present on the Zoom call with about 10 PUC staffers Thursday, adding he might have gone “over the top” at times because he was really frustrated by what residents were having to deal with.
He said they shared the video from Tuesday’s council meeting of public comment from Sabrina Hambel, a single mother from Canyon Country, who was holding her 2-year-old girl with severe health challenges that have been exacerbated by power outages. Miranda said he wanted the PUC to see who was being hurt by the outages and how badly.
“It was a pretty heavy meeting — a lot of discussion, a lot of emotion from us to them,” Miranda said Thursday afternoon. “They’re going to write a letter to Southern California Edison reiterating some of the things in our letter, wanting to find out what (SCE) is going to do to address the problems.”
Aggravating many customers during the recent windstorms was the lack of clear communication from SCE on the nature of their problems.
At a previous City Council meeting, City Manager Ken Striplin said he understood residents’ frustration, but SCE treats requests from the city the same way it treats its millions of other customers.
For their part, SCE officials Thursday said they were not aware of the meeting but again expressed sympathy for the impact to its customers.
“I just want to stress and reiterate that we absolutely understand how PSPS significantly impacts our customers’ lives, and we only use them as a last resort in order to keep everyone safe,” said Diane Castro, spokeswoman for SCE, in a phone interview Thursday evening. She said officials were working on updating the information available regarding the status of the circuit hardening.
Thousands lost power due to equipment failures, and thousands of others endured outages intended to prevent wind-damaged equipment from starting a wildfire, over the last several weeks. Many customers were left to figure out for themselves whether their power was down due to outages or a failure, and the latter group was given no updates for when their power would be restored due to the widespread nature of the outages.
It seemed a perfect storm for the utility as well, with wind gusts that approached 100 mph at one point taking down power to the facilities SCE used to keep its outage map operational, leaving many in the dark literally and figuratively at one point.
SCE officials were not immediately available for comment Thursday afternoon in response to the meeting, which did not include SCE, according to officials.
SCE has given little explanation for the delays in the circuit hardening, a process that helps prevent the need for the preemptive PSPS program. The utility is years behind its previously stated schedule.
A spokesman for the utility said in 2021 the Hillfield Circuit near Sierra Highway, which has lost power several times during the recent outages, would be completed by the end of the year. The SCE website on circuit hardening now states the work will be completed in 2027.
It’s unclear if that’s current, though, as the website also indicates the Guitar Circuit, which is around Highway 126 on the other side of the Santa Clarita Valley, has been repeatedly hit by outages over the past three weeks. The website indicates that circuit hardening was to be completed by 2024.