With an intense Santa Ana wind event poised to hit this week, SCE is prestaging crews and equipment in anticipation of elevated fire danger

 

SCE Crews Ready for Extreme Winds, Possible Outages

By Taylor Hillo

 

As we head into 2025, everyone can likely agree it would be nice if high winds could have stayed behind in 2024. Unfortunately, that’s not the way Mother Nature works — kicking off the new year is an extreme Santa Ana wind event for Southern California.

The National Weather Service has issued high wind advisories and fire weather watches for several counties in Southern California Edison’s service area. The elevated risk of fire danger comes amid several consecutive months without significant rain.

From Tuesday through Wednesday, wind gusts are forecast to reach up to 85 mph with isolated gusts to 100 mph. The winds combined with locally dry vegetation will increase the risk of wildfire, meaning  Public Safety Power Shutoffs may be necessary to protect homes and communities . SCE crews are also ready to quickly and safely respond to power outages due to extremely high winds that are not due to PSPS.

Currently, more than 294,000 customers in Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura Counties are under consideration for a potential PSPS.

“The incoming wind is predicted to be intense,” said Raymond Fugere, SCE’s PSPS incident commander. “Ensuring the safety of our customers and communities is our highest priority. We use these shutoffs only as a last resort.”

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 available on the page.

If power is turned off, SCE will attempt to restore electricity to customers as fast as possible, when it is safe to do so. After the weather event ends, crews will inspect the lines to make sure nothing is damaged and determine if it is safe to re-energize the area. This means customers could be without power even after winds have ended until inspections are completed in their communities.

Where safely possible, power could be restored to customers temporarily if there are lulls in the weather. Further shutoffs may occur if winds return.

 

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 .

 

Background on PSPS:

• 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 does not shut off power based only on weather forecasts, but rather, based on actual observed conditions.
• Why does my neighbor have power and I don’t? The location of your home or business on a circuit and the area of severe weather relative to your local substation are important factors in determining whether or not you are impacted by PSPS.
• 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.
• 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 on PSPS decision-making, visit  sce.com/psps .