SCE Enhances Its Response to Outages and Disasters

'Major events can affect many of our customers and can happen at any time, so it was critical to have a facility that is capable of handling more than one incident at a time. This way we can facilitate restoration efforts after any significant incident, including Public Safety Power Shutoff events and large wildfires, once it is safe to do so,' said Daigler.

Customers should expect a significant reduction of PSPS events, assuming the same weather and fuel conditions as last year. This is a result of SCE's expedited grid hardening work in communities frequently impacted by PSPS.

Once grid hardening is completed on the 72 circuits that experienced at least four de-energizations last year, PSPS outage times will be reduced by at least 70% in high fire risk areas, assuming the same weather and fuel conditions exist as in 2020. In fact, 81,000 customers have already been removed from PSPS consideration this year.

The utility's current Wildfire Mitigation Plan and PSPS Action Plan were both filed with the California Public Utilities Commission earlier this year.