Patch Blog: Poor, Poor, Pitiful Edison

So much in the news this week about how . How unforeseen it all was, how overwhelmed they are and detailing all of the other really good reasons why .

From this, I think it is safe to assume that Edison does have one group working at 100 percent efficiency: their press-lackeys who have been extremely successful in getting the story out about how much Edison is suffering.

Granted, it was a really strong windstorm — a walk around the Rose Bowl will confirm that. But big wind stories go back 100 years — ask Mike Lawler. And, it’s not like Edison International doesn’t know how to handle these situations; they deal with them every year — from hurricanes in the Gulf Coast to blizzards in the northeast U.S. Every other local power utility around here did much better: Glendale, Burbank, Los Angeles DWP; even hard-hit Pasadena responded to power outages faster than Edison.

No, Edison’s problem is not surprise, it’s not inexperience; it’s bad management doing bad planning. After all, it was Edison who decided how they should string their electrical lines, the design of their power poles, the strength and types of materials to use, which trees to trim and on what schedule, the amount of funds allocated for staffing, emergency contracts, line maintenance, equipment upkeep, repair and replacement.

The sad, grim reality is Edison failed, on a system wide basis, to commit the resources necessary to deal with even a relatively low-grade emergency here. If Edison can’t handle some wind, I can’t imagine how Edison will cope with the aftermath of our next big earthquake. We may not like what Edison has done, but there is nothing we can do about it.

We can’t fire them and get our power somewhere else. Maybe the PUC can do something... aw, who am I kidding. I don’t live too far from a friend inside the Glendale city line. Does OSH even carry a half-mile extension cord?