Series of fire-related outages affect 48,000 in Santa Barbara County
Unpredictable blackouts have come and gone since last Wednesday and are expected to ease as fires slowly reach full containment during the next few days.
A group of about 48,000 customers in Santa Barbara County have suffered from a series of blackouts caused by area wildfires during the last week, officials said.
Jane Brown, a spokeswoman for Southern California Edison, said the last two major outages have occurred within the past 24 hours and more could take place at any time.
One major outage took place Monday night and lasted about 45 minutes and another occurred this morning between 10:30 and 11:15. Both affected customers along a transmission line that stretches from Gaviota toward Carpenteria, said Nancy Williams, a regional manager for Southern California Edison.
"Most of the outages have been in the north side of the county in the northern part of the city of Santa Barbara and Goleta area," Williams said. "Sometimes the blackouts are for 20 minutes, sometimes for a whole hour, but every time it's the same group of customers affected along that transmission line."
The first outage in the area caused by the wildfires occurred last Wednesday evening, affecting more than 81,000 customers who lost power when wildfire smoke and ash damaged transmission lines, Williams said.
Blackouts have come and gone since then and are expected to ease as fires slowly reach full containment during the next few days.
Edison issued a statement on Monday warning its customers that the wildfire could cause further power outages for residents of their service area in Carpinteria, Summerland, Montecito, Santa Barbara, Goleta, Isla Vista and Gaviota.
"Until this fire is under control, the outages can happen any time," Williams said.
Crews in Goleta are making repairs and standing by in the event of future outages, officials said.
The utility company is urging customers to conserve power, especially as state officials today said that the heat wave expected to grip the state over the next few days would place additional stress on energy supply.
The California Independent System Operator, the agency that monitors the state's power grid, says peak energy demand could this week approach the record set in July 2006. The agency is asking utility consumers to reduce power use in the late afternoon when air conditioners drive electricity use to the highest point of the day.
Edison's conservation tips include using traditional TV sets instead of plasma screens, replacing regular bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs and limiting the use of central air conditioning.
