Grid Maintenance Blackouts Turn Off Customers

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When Tony Haralambos got a notice from Southern California Edison last month at his City of Industry beverage distribution business, he went into a panic. The notice said that in five days, Edison was going to shut off his power for 12 hours to do grid maintenance.

The shutdown would start at 8 p.m. on a Monday evening and last until 8 a.m. the following morning, peak production hours for Haralambos Beverage Co.

“We take orders during the day, and then in the evening, we build our loads for next-day deliveries,” said Haralambos, the company’s co-owner and president. “Power is absolutely essential: We’ve got thousands of customers impacted if we can’t make deliveries the next morning.”

So to keep the business running, Haralambos bought special lanterns, rented generators and shifted work schedules so everyone would be on duty during the shutdown.

But 20 minutes before the shutdown was set to begin, an Edison subcontractor pulled into the parking lot with some startling news: The shutdown was postponed indefinitely due to some problems at a nearby substation.

“I was furious. It was all for nothing,” said Haralambos. He spent more than $20,000 to deal with the planned shutdown. “And even worse, at some point soon, I’m going to have to spend all that money again.”

So Haralambos contacted the office of Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich. It had recently received other complaints from businesses related to a planned outage in Altadena, an unincorporated community north of Pasadena.

So last week, Antonovich announced he was asking the state Public Utilities Commission to regulate planned outages by utilities.

“It is vital that the region’s largest energy supplier mitigate any negative impacts on local businesses by scheduling outages and routine maintenance during nonpeak times and providing adequate notice so that business owners can prepare,” Antonovich said in a statement to the Business Journal last week.

Edel Vizcarra, planning and public works deputy for Antonovich, said the PUC has a range of options it could consider. These include restricting planned outages during business hours, requiring utilities to give at least a week or two notice to businesses and residents, and even requiring utilities to give credits on power bills when a planned outage occurs.

Grid upgrades

In response to questions for this article, Southern California Edison gave a statement to the Business Journal saying that it conducts more than 20,000 planned maintenance outages a year to make necessary upgrades to the grid. The company, a subsidiary of Edison International of Rosemead, had previously announced it plans to spend $20 billion in grid upgrades over the next five years and tries to manage the related shutdowns.

“SCE recognizes that any outage is an inconvenience to customers, and schedules them so they can be completed as safely and cost effectively as possible while minimizing inconvenience,” the statement said. “This means the company must plan most, but not all, work during normal work hours.

In regard to the case of Haralambos, the Southern California Edison statement said the utility typically provides notice five days before a planned outage and that rescheduling or cancellation notices are provided at least three days in advance, when possible.

“However, unforeseen circumstances, such as safety issues or weather, occasionally result in last-minute cancellations,” the statement said.

A Southern California Edison spokesman said the company would work with the PUC if it takes up the issue.

But Haralambos said Southern California Edison should do much more. In scheduling a planned outage, the utility should canvas impacted businesses to get their input on the best time for a planned outage.

“Had they come to our business in advance and sought input, I would have told them that a power shutdown on a weeknight was the absolute worst time for us,” he said. “They should treat us like any business would treat their customers.”

Haralambos is not alone. Carrie Meyers, a pet store owner in Altadena, said a planned outage forced her to close her store on the Saturday after Thanksgiving in 2012.

“That’s always our busiest Saturday of the year and we had special deals tied to American Express’ Small Business Saturday,” Meyers said. “With no power, we couldn’t even open the store.”

Meyers learned of the outage when she saw a notice posted on the front door of a nearby building the day before the shutdown.

She said she estimates she lost about $2,500 in business that day.

“The timing of that outage was just awful,” she said.

She later discovered that Edison had sent a notice to her business, Steve’s Pets, but with the wrong address, so she never received it.

“Yet it wouldn’t really have mattered because my neighbors only found out about the planned outage the day before,” she said. “What kind of alternative arrangements can you make with that little notice?”

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Howard Fine
Howard Fine is a 23-year veteran of the Los Angeles Business Journal. He covers stories pertaining to healthcare, biomedicine, energy, engineering, construction, and infrastructure. He has won several awards, including Best Body of Work for a single reporter from the Alliance of Area Business Publishers and Distinguished Journalist of the Year from the Society of Professional Journalists.

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