Downey endures power outages; Long Beach holds on during heat wave

If power outages signal the unofficial start of summer in Southe Califoia, then Monday marked the transition from spring, as thousands across the region endured varying disruptions to the grid.

An estimate 23,000 customers were without power at one point in the coverage area for Southe Califoia Edison, with a substation fire causing power to go out around noon for 16,000 customers in the Downey area.

The outage affected customers in Bellflower, Norwalk and Santa Fe Springs, and SCE officials said by late afteoon that 2,600 customers remained without power, with all power expected to be restored by 6 p.m. The affected area included spots near Lakewood and Pioneer boulevards, and Leffingwell and Gallatin roads, officials said.

Mary A Milbou, a spokeswoman with SCE, which serves 5 million customers throughout Los Angeles, Orange, San Beardino and parts of Riverside County, said the cause of the fire was not yet known Monday afteoon.

“The good news is that we were able to re-route the circuit” to get the power on again, Milbou said.

Long Beach on alert

Nearly a year after power failures in Long Beach left more than 30,000 people in the dark for days, city officials said work to strengthen an aging power system translated into a relatively low number of outages in the city Monday, where the temperature hit 99 degrees by 4 p.m. at Long Beach Airport.

More than 200 customers in the Wrigley neighborhood were without power Monday moing, while 83 went without near El Dorado Park Estates. Dozens of customers were without power in Los Altos and the Plaza neighborhood.

“At this point the grid seems to be holding,” Long Beach Spokeswoman Kerry Gerot. “SCE has done a lot of work to the grid at the request of the city after last year’s power outages.”

In the wake of outages last July that left 30,000 Long Beach residents without power for several days, the utility performed a detailed inspection and work on its underground vaults in Long Beach.

SCE also secured manhole covers that blew into the air during the emergency, and worked to automate network protectors. A later review of all three substations feeding into downtown Long Beach and the 17 substations feeding into the Port of Long Beach confirmed they were operating safely.

Gerot said Long Beach emergency officials have been in contact with SCE during the heatwave, and the city is participating in the utility’s Demand Response Program to reduce power and conserve energy at City Hall and other public buildings. As temperatures spike, use of air conditioning can tax the power grid.

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The city in February secured 15 heavy-duty mobile generators for power failures and other emergencies through a $1.4 million Homeland Security Grant.

“The generators are placed at locations throughout the city in case of needs like the power outage last year, or any other emergency situation,” Gerot said.

As a heatwave suffocated the region, Edison reported an outage at 5:55 p.m. Sunday that affected 743 customers near East Steas Street between Radner and Albury avenues. Within 90 minutes, power had been restored to all but 34 customers.

“Fortunately, the situation in Long Beach is looking very good,” Milbou said.

Milbou said SCE will continue to conduct scheduled maintenance outages, but will try to limit the work to late nights or early moings, to reduce the number of customers affected.

Statewide Flex alert

The wave of heat also sparked conservation waings from the state.

Officials with the Califoia Independent System Operator — a nonprofit corporation that operates the high voltage grid in Califoia — issued a Flex Alert Monday moing for Southe Califoia. The call for consumers to conserve electricity is the first such waing by the agency this year and the first one specific to the region since pre-2011.

Steve Greenlee, spokesman for Califoia ISO, said there were only two issued in 2015 and both were statewide Flex Alerts. He said they are issued when the temperatures climb to excessively high levels and officials fear the conditions will create a strain on the state’s power grid, leaving it susceptible to outages.

“We don’t call them (Flex Alerts) often,” Greenlee said. “But we do call them when we need them.”

As temperatures climbed over the past few days in Southe Califoia, the National Weather Service issued excessive heat waings for Los Angeles County Monday and reported the mercury could hit 110 degrees in non-coastal areas of the county.

Temperatures in the Los Angeles area are expected to cool this week, starting with a Tuesday forecasted high of mid to high 70s at the beaches, and up to 90 degrees inland. Wednesday should see highs from the lower to mid 70s at the beaches and lower to mid 80s inland.

Staff writer David Montero contributed to this story.