Announcement Expected in CPUC's Probe into SoCal Edison in Last Summer's Power Outages in Long Beach

LONG BEACH, CA — The California Public Utilities Commission announced Monday it will review whether Southern California Edison violated any rules or regulations and should face fines stemming from repeated power outages that darkened a swath of downtown Long Beach last summer.

The commission opened a "penalty consideration case" against Edison over the outages, which left thousands of customers without power for as long as four days and were highlighted by an underground blast that sent manhole covers flying into the air.

According to the CPUC, a staff investigation identified failures dealing with the maintenance, inspection and management of the electrical system in Long Beach, and deficiencies in emergency response and communications capabilities.

The penalty case will determine if the utility violated rules or regulations, maintained accurate and complete records and provided sufficient emergency response and communications during the outages, according to the CPUC. Edison could face fines of up to $50,000 per day of violations.

A representative for Edison said the company was reviewing the CPUC announcement and would likely have a response later Monday.

Edison released a pair of reports in November — one performed by the utility itself and another by a consulting firm — that found equipment failures caused by improper management of the underground power network led to the July 15, 2015, outage that left thousands of customers without electricity for as long as four days.

The July 15 outage affected about 4,800 customers in the downtown Long Beach area and forced the closure of several streets. The outage began with what appeared to be a vault explosion that sent manhole covers flying into the air and prompted police to warn people to stay out of the area.

Edison came under criticism from some residents and city officials when it took as long as four days to get power fully restored. Some residents complained that food in their refrigerators went bad due to the lack of electricity.

The reports released by Edison in November also found that damage caused by the July 15 equipment failure triggered a second outage on July 30, 2015, that affected as many as 30,000 customers.

"We are deeply disappointed that the findings point to shortcomings in SCE's operation of the network," Pete Dietrich, SCE senior vice president for Transmission and Distribution, said when the reports were released. "However, we are encouraged that the investigations have identified issues that are correctable, that we will learn from and that can help us improve the way we manage the network to provide the kind of service to our customers that they should expect from us."

According to the November reports, the July 15 outage was caused by the failure of an "underground cable splice." Edison officials said that while the network is designed to keep operating if a single component fails, the failure of the cable splice caused a domino-effect of other equipment failures due to "non-functioning network protection devices, resulting in the entire downtown network being taken offline for inspection and repairs."

The second outage on July 30 was the result of equipment damage that occurred during the first blast, according to the reports.

In that outage, as many as 30,000 customers lost power following a vault fire near 10th Street and Pine Avenue. Although many customers had service quickly restored, some had no electricity for two or three days.

Edison's internal report outlined steps being taken by the company to prevent a recurrence. It also noted that Edison has already made thorough inspections of every underground vault in downtown Long Beach, and inspections are continuing on other parts of the city's power grid.

— City News Service, photo via WikiCommons