SCE meteorologists and fire scientists continually monitor high fire risk areas in our service territory for high winds, low humidity, and very dry vegetation. Combined, these create the risk of an ignition from our equipment.

Although our poles and wires are built to withstand strong winds, flying debris poses a major risk.

Vegetation like palm fronds or branches or objects like furniture covers can become airborne and hit our wires, ignite, and then fall to the ground near dead grasses.

As the wind speeds get close to dangerous thresholds, we ask, "do we need to turn off power to some customers to protect our neighborhoods"? And, "what can we do to minimize the number of customers who lose power"?

Public Safety Power Shutoffs are our tool of last resort.

Our meterorologists map the weather. As with a hurricane, this information will get more exact as we get closer to the event. We discuss public safety issues with county offices of emergency management. We see if we can move customers to different circuits to keep them powered, then we notify all customers who might be affected. If we can't reach our critical care and medical baseline customers who rely on life-saving medical equipment, we try to visit them.

On the day of the event, we get readings every ten minutes from more than 1,050 weather stations. We also gather data from our crews equipped with mobile weather units. We try to let customers know one to four hours in advance of when the wind will hit. In some cases, the wind comes up too quickly, and in other cases, taking close reads of the weather allows us to avoid shutting off power.

When we look for fire risk, we look at the entire length of the circuit. There might be a fire risk at one end of the circuit, even though customers at the other end are in less windy areas. If we can, we shut off only parts of a circuit.

When we get an all clear from our meteorologists, we patrol every circuit that was shut off. If we see damage, we will send out crews to repair it. Sometimes there is only a lull before winds will come back. If we can, we inspect the lines and turn power back on temporarily.

We understand that shutting off power to reduce the risk of wildfires is a terrible inconvenience, but as the risk of significant wildfire has increased, we are taking this last resort measure to reduce this risk.

To decrease the need for PSPS, we are also working to make our grid more fire resistant. For instance, we are replacing thousands of miles of bare wires with insulated wires that reduce fire risk and installing fire resistant poles and fast acting fuses.

Thank you for your patience as we work together to keep our communities safe.

sce.com/psps.