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By Jorge Casuso
July 27 -- Saying
they’ve been hit with
an average of one power outage
every other month, angry Downtown
business owners this week demanded
to know when Southern California
Edison officials plan to fix
the ongoing problem.
But power company officials
who attended a meeting sponsored
by the Bayside District Tuesday
said the outages are the result
of an old system that that is
being rapidly upgraded, a process
that will take another three
years.
But the explanation seemed
to only feed the frustration
of business owners who vividly
recall the week-long power outage
that blacked out several Downtown
blocks for as long as one week
exactly a year earlier. (see
story)
“I’m talking about
major blackouts. I’m not
taking about 15 or 20 minute
interruptions,” said Jeff
King, whose restaurant I Cugini
on Ocean Avenue hosted the event.
“My goal is that following
this meeting, we don’t
have another blackout.
“We’re not looking
here for a cure to cancer or
a spaceship to the moon,”
King said.
“We are looking at a mechanical
problem. . . This has got a
pebble effect of extreme seriousness.”
King estimated that his two
Downtown restaurants lose about
$80,000 a year due to blackouts.
King isn’t the only one
seeing his bottom line drop.
Dr. Michael Farzam, whose family
owns two hotels on Ocean Avenue,
estimated yearly losses of “a
couple of hundred thousand dollars.”
“We have boxes of candles
and flashlights in our office
ready to go because this happens
so often,” Farzam said.
“I think it’s unacceptable.
“We keep hearing different
excuses,” he said. “We
just keep getting these I’m
sorry letters.”
Edison officials, whose company
is the city’s sole power
provider, used lists of statistics
to explain that the company
has been replacing the old systems,
especially the Sun Tower circuit
that serves 800 customers and
has had numerous outages.
“My job is to bring a
solution, look at the system
and work with the community,”
said William L. Bryan, vice
president of Edison’s
business customer division.
“We need to dwell not
so much on history, but on the
future.
“We don’t like
it any more than you do,”
Bryan said. “It’s
an aged system. We want to put
something in place that’s
of value to Santa Monica.”
Edison officials said the company
has replaced 13 of the 48 circuits
in Downtown Santa Monica, which
has 21,571 customers within
the area bounded by Ocean Avenue,
7th Street, Colorado Avenue
and Wilshire Boulevard.
The company also has recently
replaced five poles, three underground
switches, two overhead capacitors
and eight underground transformers
and replaced some 3,300 feet
of underground cable.
To perform the upgrades, Edison
has to shut off power, which
is happening more frequently
as the work moves faster, company
officials said.
In the first six months of
2007, there have been 46 planned
outages to perform work, compared
to 30 in the last six months
of last year, officials said.
However, the duration of the
outages has decreased.
The number of planned outages
is expected to increase as Edison
replaces 13 poles and ten switches
by 2010.
“If you wait for a catastrophe,
it’s much harder,”
Bryan said. “We take steps
to minimize the disruptions
that occur. We want to be sensitive
in the planned outages arena.
We’re spending lots of
money on our infrastructure.”
But the business owners weren’t
buying the explanations. They
wanted results, King said.
“If we have a problem
with Edison, we’re stuck,”
said King, who added that his
13 restaurants outside Santa
Monica have not had any outages.
“It’s not enough.
It’s not working.
“In spite of the grids
and snids and the telephone
poles and the investment in
the infrastructure, it’s
not working,” he said.
“I may be going crazy
here, but I’m not hearing
solutions. We can’t go
to another utility. We’re
stuck.”
“People want an outcome,
and that’s fair,”
said Bryan, who has been with
the company for 42 years. “This
is not about coming down and
convincing everybody we’re
doing a wonderful job. I think
we are.”
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