Southern California Edison restored power midday Thursday to Santa Barbara-area customers affected by public safety power shutoffs.
The shutoffs, which started Wednesday morning, are typically implemented during windy, dry conditions to try and prevent Edison equipment from starting wildfires.
There were about 9,000 customers under consideration for shutoffs in the Goleta Valley, Santa Barbara and Montecito areas, including the areas that just had power restored.
“When a PSPS gets activated, those shutoffs remain in effect for the duration of those wind conditions,” spokesperson Gabriela Ornelas said. “Once we see those winds subside, that’s when we start getting in there to inspect lines for damage and work through restoration.”
The Outage Map had indicated the shutoffs could last for days, but some customers will get service restored if the fire risk conditions subsided in their areas, Ornelas said.
“Areas could be affected by another PSPS as conditions change,” she added.
Painted Cave resident Eric Woodbury told Noozhawk power went off at 5:30 a.m. Wednesday and was restored around 11:30 a.m. Thursday. The area had not been windy, he said.
He said he understood Edison is being cautious, but was frustrated how long the power was off.
“It’s the timing I don’t always understand,” he said. “We have lots of days all year round when the wind blows. And the wind here is either on or off. When it’s on, it’s blowing hard. But they haven’t turned out power off in a long time despite winds before.”
No red flag warnings or wind advisories were in effect for Santa Barbara County as of Thursday morning.
Windy weather throughout the Edison service area – including Ventura and Los Angeles counties where wildfires are raging – is expected to continue through Friday and into next week, Ornelas said.
“We understand it can be a hardship to be without power. Because of the nature of this event it could be several days before we’re able to restore power to all our customers due to outages caused by damage as well as public safety power shutoffs,” she said.
More on Power Shutoffs
With planned and unplanned power shutoffs, Edison advises people to “get familiar with their utility box,” learn how to manually open garage doors; keep vehicles with at least a half tank of gas in case of power outages at gas stations; and stay at least 100 feet away from downed power lines.
In an email to Edison customers Thursday morning, senior VP and Chief Customer Officer Funmi Williamson wrote: “We recognize the hardship that loss of power creates. Due to the dangerous conditions, it will take longer than usual for SCE to restore power, and customers should be prepared for extended and potentially intermittent outages.
“Many outages from this week’s extreme weather could extend through the weekend and into early next week. For equipment that is damaged by fire or where access is restricted, restoration times could be substantially longer. Ongoing fire and wind conditions may result in some customers whose power is restored to experience a subsequent power shutoff.
“We have thousands of field resources ready to restore service as soon as weather conditions allow. The company will be supported by other utilities through our industry’s mutual assistance program.”
No PSPS outages for PG&E customers were active or forecast for Santa Barbara County as of Thursday morning.
