Politics & Government

State Commission to Hold Public Hearings on SoCal Power Outages

More than a month after hurricane-speed winds toppled trees and wreaked havoc across the Southland, the California Public Utilities Commission will hold a hearing to take public testimony on how Southern California Edison responded to the emergency.

The California Public Utilities Commission will hold a public participation hearing regarding Southern California Edison’s response to power outages caused by a and left many customers in the dark for days.

The meeting will be held from 4-9 p.m. on Jan. 26 at Temple City High School, Performance Hall, 9501 Lemon Ave., Temple City.

In a news release from the utilities commission, the CPUC encourages the public to attend and testify about the outages and SoCal Edison's emergency response to its customers. The power company came under fire following the Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 windstorm, for what residents and city officials called a sluggish and disorganized response to the thousands of customers who did not have electricity.

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Gusts of 80 mph or more downed trees and left more than 440,000 customers in the San Gabriel Valley without power, some for more than a week.

In La Cañada, city councilman Don Voss encouraged during the that residents attend the meeting, as well as give their first-person account of the power company's response to them.

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Also at the Jan. 26 hearing, SoCal Edison will provide a brief description of its outage response and may reply to previous criticisms received since the windstorm, including the length of time it took to restore power to all customers despite promises to have power restored within 24 to 48 hours after the storm, according to the news release.

In addition, the CPUC has ordered the power company to provide customer service representatives at the hearing to assist customers with questions and claims related to damages allegedly caused by the power outages.

In December, the CPUC announced that it is investigating the cause of the outages, including pole failures and any other potential safety factors that contributed to the outages or their duration: staffing levels, the length of time it took SCE to respond to safety related calls from its customers, and the accuracy of information being conveyed.

The CPUC will determine whether SoCal Edison met all safety requirements and did all it could to prevent outages, restore power and communicate with its customers. If the CPUC determines that the power company has violated safety rules, it may face fines and penalties. The CPUC expects to issue a preliminary report this month.

For those unable to attend in person, written comments may be submitted to: CPUC Public Advisor, 505 Van Ness Ave., Room 2103, San Francisco, CA 94102 or via email to public.advisor@cpuc.ca.gov. If specialized accommodations are needed, such as sign language, please contact the CPUC’s Public Advisor’s Office five business days beforehand toll free at 866-849-8390 or toll free TTY at 866-836-7825.

While a quorum of Commissioners and/or their staff may attend the Public Participation Hearing, no official action will be taken.

For more information, please see the Ruling setting the Public Participation Hearing at http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/efile/RULINGS/156007.pdf.

For more information on the CPUC, please visit www.cpuc.ca.gov.


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