Senator Calls for More Urgency and Creativity from CPUC on Grid Resilience, and Accountability for SCE After Vulnerable Residents Face Repeat Power Downs in Pandemic
For Immediate Release: January 19, 2021
Contact: Faith Pulido at faith.pulido@sen.ca.gov
SACRAMENTO –The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) today called Southern California Edison’s (SCE) handling of public safety power shutoff (PSPS) events “tactless” and “deficient in meeting the standard its customers deserve.”
The CPUC’s letter to SCE can be found here
State Senator Henry Stern (D-Los Angeles), who chairs the Senate Natural Resources & Water and Joint Legislative Emergency Management Committees and represents a district which experienced a majority of SCE’s 16 mass power shutoffs in 2020, released the following statement after reviewing the CPUC’s letter:
“Our communities have been more than patient with SCE over the past few years of PSPS events. These persistent power shutdowns during extreme winds are untenable and unjust. Just look at the impacts we’ve seen on the Access and Functional Needs community, as well as on working families trying to survive COVID-19, tele-learning, and tele-commuting only to have the power go down. Enough. It’s time to free these communities from the grid.
“While I appreciate the CPUC’s firm response to this never-ending season of power shutdowns, it needs to look to stronger enforcement, as well as clearer upfront requirements on medical baseline marketing, where efforts have been paltry despite repeated reprimands and direction from the Legislature.
“The CPUC and Edison have both dragged their heels when it comes to removing roadblocks to linking more distributed generation assets and building microgrids for these vulnerable communities. SB 1339 became law 2+ years ago, but Edison has yet to jump to embrace this new reality and the CPUC’s recent proposed rulemaking on microgrids have not pushed the utility. Plus, I’d like to see both of them be much more proactive when it comes to letting medically vulnerable Californians know about the medical baseline programs that give them access to early notification of PSPS events and rolling blackout events now under my SB 596 from last year.
“Moreover, the CPUC and Edison have refused to embrace strategic siting and underground neighbor–to-neighbor linkages for the hundreds of millions of dollars of self-generation incentives recently scattered across the region with no broader grid resiliency to show for it.
“The Joint Legislative Emergency Management Committee will be following up with additional oversight and new legislation if necessary.”
The CPUC has called on SCE to appear at a public hearing on January 26th, 2021, to answer questions about its mass power shutoffs, and discuss what corrective actions it will take based on the CPUC’s letter.
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