Southern California wildfires prompt safety power shutoffs

AccuWeather

Power companies in Southern California, including Edison International, are responding to the critical wildfire threat in the region. Safety power shutoffs have been conducted in wake of the fires.

Transcript

00:00As wildfires spread across Southern California, power companies need to stay ahead of any

00:04outbreaks. With more on the steps they take to keep customers and the grid safe is Jeff Monford

00:09of Southern California Edison. Jeff, thanks for being with us this morning. Happy to speak with

00:14you. Wish it was a better circumstance. As do we. What is the latest? Can you tell us about

00:19the power shutoffs and the safety behind them? Well, certainly. You know, here at Southern

00:24California Edison, our top concern is the safety of customers, crew members, and communities.

00:29And we continue to identify areas that need what we call a public safety power shutoff.

00:36As you know, we're looking at a situation with really dry vegetation on the ground,

00:41high winds that are without any humidity. And we want to make sure that if there's

00:48any possibility that we can prevent a problem that could occur if debris becomes airborne,

00:55we want to, we've been proactively shutting off power for public safety power shutoffs.

01:02So far, we've notified about 440,000 residential and business customers that we may have to turn

01:10off their power. And as of a few minutes ago, we had shut off power to about 120,000 customers.

01:18And really quickly here, there's so much danger of these power towers behind you.

01:24This is what a lot of the problems is because the winds are so strong that they can blow the

01:29lines over, correct? Actually, the real issue is not so much the lines coming down or the wind

01:36damaging the grid. It's more about airborne debris. And that would also include trees coming in

01:42contact with lines and pulling them down. And that really would happen more at the much more

01:48local level with ordinary poles, not the high transmission towers in my background photo.

01:56Thank you so much for joining us as important information here that for a lot is unfamiliar

02:01here. So we appreciate you breaking it down and giving us the behind the scenes,

02:06Jeff, there with Edison Power. We appreciate,

02:09again, you being live with us this morning on Accuweather Early.

02:12Of course.

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