Southern California Edison Calls for Conservation as Utility Battles Wildfires, Works to Restore Service
28 October 2003 - 7:45AM
PR Newswire (US)
Southern California Edison Calls for Conservation as Utility
Battles Wildfires, Works to Restore Service INLAND EMPIRE, Calif.,
Oct. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern California Edison officials called
on customers to conserve power Monday as the utility coped with the
many wildfires in the region. The wildfires disabled some
transmission lines over the weekend. Approximately 35,000 of the
customers without power Monday were in San Bernardino and Ventura
counties. Approximately 5,000 customers in Forest Falls and
Idyllwild were without power because SCE imposed protective power
outages in bark beetle-infested areas on Sunday. SCE imposed the
protective outages because the high winds and the unprecedented
presence of thousands of dead or dying trees threatening the power
supply to its customers. Officials said Monday that SCE expected to
begin the process of re-energizing the circuits supplying Forest
Falls and Idyllwild later Monday when the winds were expected to
subside. Officials said the circuits would first have to be
inspected before being re-energized, a process that could take 24
hours or longer. SCE estimates the fires damaged or downed
approximately 550 power poles over the weekend. SCE has
approximately 82 crews in the field in the affected areas. Also on
Monday, SCE issued a request for aid from neighboring utilities.
"For those customers who have lost their homes in the fires or who
have had to evacuate and now face great uncertainty, we extend our
deepest sympathy," said Larry Grant, SCE vice president for power
delivery. "To our customers who have remained or are returning to
your homes and businesses, we ask for your continued patience. We
will work to get power back on quickly for you as soon as
conditions make it possible for Edison crews to enter affected
areas." To better cope with any scheduled or unscheduled power
outage, SCE advises customers to: * Check on the medical needs of
family and neighbors. * Use flashlights. Don't use candles, which
can start fires. * Keep battery-powered radio with fresh batteries
to stay informed. * Maintain at least three-quarters of a tank of
gasoline in your vehicle(s). Gas station pumps do not operate
during power outages. * Have alternate, back-up arrangements in
place to keep perishable food chilled and fresh in the event of
prolonged outages. Keep refrigerator and freezer doors closed as
much as possible during an outage. A well-filled, unopened freezer
will keep food frozen for hours without electricity. * Never
connect a portable generator directly to a power line. State law
requires that customers inform us when a generator is being used at
a home or business. Call us at 1-800-655-4555. * Never touch a
power line suspended in the air or lying on the ground. For further
information, customers may call SCE at 1-800-655-4555 or visit the
utility's Web site at http://www.sce.com/barkbeetle . An Edison
International (NYSE:EIX) company, Southern California Edison is one
of the nation's largest electric utilities, serving a population of
more than 12 million via 4.5 million customer accounts in a
50,000-square-mile service area within central, coastal and
Southern California. DATASOURCE: Southern California Edison
CONTACT: Corporate Communications of Southern California Edison,
+1-626-302-2255 Web site: http://www.edisonnews.com/
http://www.sce.com/barkbeetle
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