The timing couldn’t have been much worse for Southern California Edison. Just a few days before company managers were scheduled to update the Santa Barbara City Council on efforts to repair the downtown power grid following a yearlong spate of blackouts, Chapala Street went dark during the Friday evening dinner rush. Restaurants emptied, traffic crept through lightless intersections, and firefighters rescued 10 shoppers from Macy’s elevators.
This Tuesday’s council presentation marked six months since Edison, prompted by organized pressure from business owners and city officials, pledged to spend $12 million improving Santa Barbara’s aging electric system. District Manager Alicia Pillado said that so far Edison has replaced a number of vaults, put the Modoc substation back in service, created circuit ties, and replaced switches, among other projects. New transformers will soon be put in, she said, and automation systems installed.
Downtown Santa Barbara has experienced four unplanned outages in 2015 to date, Pillado explained. Three of those occurred along the same circuit, and two lasted approximately 24 hours. During Fiesta celebrations, Mayor Helene Schneider stated, an overburdened line nearly killed power for blocks. “Wow,” she said. “That really could have been quite a situation.”