One-hundred and eighty-three down and 5,317 more to go. That's the number of miles of bare electrical wiring Southern California Edison has replaced with covered connectors — and how many thousands more it intends to replace by 2025. Edison reps are laying out the company's power-shutoff program to cities across Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, where 280,000 acres were consumed by the Thomas Fire in December 2017, causing two deaths directly and, in the following January, 23 deaths in the Montecito debris flow. The goal of all the toil is to keep Edison equipment from starting another wildfire.
The miles of insulated distribution wire are part of Edison rep Rondi Guthrie's presentation — to the Santa Barbara City Council last week and to Goleta's council this evening — on the work the utility is undertaking along with its Public Safety Power Shutoff program that includes the installation of thousands of faster-flipping fuses and the deployment of a small army of tree trimmers. Priorities are organized by where electricity lines cross through the highest fire-danger zones identified on a map generated by the state Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), a map that is unrelated to fire department, weather service, and insurance maps. Preemptively, Guthrie explained it cost $3 million per mile to underground electric lines versus $430,000 per mile to replace equipment above ground, where it was also easier to inspect and maintain.
A Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) isn't as easy as flipping a switch. According to reports to the utilities commission, coordination with dozens of public agencies and meteorologists is intense as a PSPS is organized and then either carried out or canceled, depending on the winds that materialize. Of the six called by Edison since 2017, two panned out and affected a surprisingly small number of customers: 148, none with medical needs. The PSPS is tailored to affected circuits, Guthrie explained. For Santa Barbarans, whose electricity lines come across hilly high fire zones, a power shutoff might only affect areas with blasting winds, sparing other parts of the city.
