SCE Warns of Possible Public Safety Power Shutoff in Malibu Play

Southern California Edison has warned of a possible shut-off across Malibu and the surrounding area for the rest of the week ... as 55 mile per hour winds are possible Thursday.

It does not matter if your house gets power from underground lines. SCE has no practical way to separate their above-ground and below-ground wires in Malibu. Someday they might. Right now they don't.

What does that mean? It means SCE will purposely turn off power in some parts of the colored areas on the map if two things happen: their private meteorologists in Rosemead predict sustained winds will top 31 mph, and their field line workers feel stuff is blowing around and might cause their overhead lines to spark — not necessarily fall, just spark.

The CPUC gave them authority to do this in 2018, even though state law requires SCE to deliver “safe and reliable” power. Some would say that “safe” means no cable sparks, and “reliable” means no wind outages. SCE says they do this only as a last resort, but there is no effective oversight of their decisions, which are essentially made without public review.

If you are new to this, you should prepare for electric power and communications to go out. Keep your phone and computer charged.

One thing you do need is a way to keep your fiber connection and router powered up with household current, so that your fiber/cable/wireless will still connect. Most internet lines will work if you can supply power to the local router and local fiber terminal. A car battery and $15 inverter can do this. Or run an extension cord from your electric car.

Most of the time, these warnings come and go with no blackouts. But be prepared for a landslide of warnings and notices and phone messages from SCE and the city, often contradicting each other. Such is life.

If the power goes out, KBUU radio should stay up, and you will be able to get news from FM 99.1. If it's serious, we'll have updates every few minutes.