July 25, 2006

ROSEMEAD, Calif., July 25, 2006—Portland, Ore.-based PacifiCorp has agreed to send work crews to assist Southern California Edison (SCE) with the work of restoring power to the approximately 9,300 SCE customers still without power Tuesday due to a prolonged heat wave.

SCE requested mutual aid from neighboring utilities on Sunday evening when trends clearly indicated some customers could be out for several days.  Only PacifiCorp could respond and the number of workers is still being finalized..   Utilities throughout the Western U.S. are all coping with the effects of a lingering heat wave.

The workers are expected to begin arriving sometime Tuesday and will begin work immediately on the isolated power outages plaguing the Southland, many of them weather-related—either failed transformers or overhead electric wires down due to high temperatures, high winds or lightning strikes.  The additional PacifiCorp workers will supplement SCE’s existing 400 plus field personnel already working round the clock to restore power.

“We greatly appreciate the help PacifiCorp has agreed to send,” said Ron Litzinger, SCE senior vice president for transmission and distribution.  “Our highest priority at this time is getting the lights on as quickly as possible for our customers who have been without power for more than a day.” 

On Tuesday morning, SCE officials estimated the majority of the customers still without service had been without service for an extended period of time.  SCE officials said they were making good progress with service restorations but warned that new outages caused by record demand overheating equipment could occur during this record-setting heat wave.

A partial list of the communities affected Tuesday morning includes:  Cypress, Fullerton, Garden Grove, La Habra Heights, Orange, Placentia, Santa Ana, Tustin, Hemet, Fontana, Redlands, Rialto, San Bernardino, Chino, Corona, Covina, Diamond Bar, Glendora, Hacienda Heights, La Puente, La Verne, Montclair, Montebello, Norco, Ontario, Alhambra, Arcadia, Baldwin Park, Duarte, El Monte, La Canada, Monrovia, Monterey Park, Rosemead, San Gabriel, San Marino, South El Monte, Whittier,  Brea, Buena Park, Lake Elsinore, Moreno Valley, Murrieta, Perris, and Temecula.

SCE offers the following advice for customers without power:

  • If you see a power line on the ground, stay away, especially if it is sparking. Please call SCE at 1-800-611-1911 to report a downed line. 
  • Please do not use candles for lighting, since they create a fire hazard.  Use flashlights, instead.
  • Do not use equipment designed for outdoor cooking indoors.  Such equipment can emit carbon monoxide and other toxic gases.
  • If you use a generator, please do not connect it to your household circuits.  That creates “backfeed,” which is dangerous to repair crews.  Instead, plug individual appliances directly into the generator, using a heavy-duty extension cord.
  • In the event of a power outage, turn off all appliances and other electrical equipment, except for a single light bulb.  The light bulb will be your signal that power has been restored.  Turning off appliances helps ensure against overloading, which could delay the restoration of service.

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An Edison International (NYSE:EIX) company, Southern California Edison is one of the nation’s largest electric utilities, serving a population of more than 13 million via 4.7 million customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within central, coastal and Southern California.