Massive So. Calif. Power Outage Caused By ‘Major Disturbance’
A massive power outage caused by a tripped wire hit a wide area of Southern California on Thursday afternoon exposing millions of people to the summer heat.
The outage affects residents of the Coachella Valley, Orange County, San Diego County, parts of Mexico, Arizona and possibly New Mexico.
The California Independent System Operator released a statement late Thursday explaining the cause of the outage. A spokesman said there was a “major disturbance” between Arizona and Southern California in a transmission line.
“The outage was triggered after a 500-kilovolt (kV) high-voltage line from Arizona to California tripped out of service,” the spokesman said. “The transmission outage cut the flow of imported power into the most southern portion of California, resulting in wide-spread outages in the region.
“The ISO is coordinating with SDG&E as well as neighboring utilities including Southern California (Edison) and utilities in Arizona and Mexico, during restoration of service, which is being managed by SDG&E.”
Callers to News Channel 3 reported a loss of power hitting around 3:45 p.m.
At a time when temperatures in the Palm Springs area hovered around 111 degrees, Imperial Irrigation District told News Channel 3 all 150,000 of their customers lost power due to a “major disturbance in parts of the electrical grid.”
An IID spokesman said generators kicked in for essential customers, such as hospitals. He said crews are working to get power restored in small sections at a time.
Parts of Indio, including downtown, and areas toward the Salton Sea were affected by the outage. The Indio Police Department confirms major power issues that at one time crippled its 911 system.
The California Highway Patrol and Riverside County Sheriff’s Department are helping the city handle their emergency calls.
Some callers to News Channel 3’s newsroom reported hearing a loud explosion near North Shore at the Salton Sea shortly before the electric interruption.
In La Quinta, the Walmart Supercenter has been evacuated due to the power failure.
On Twitter, people from all over the southland are reporting power issues. Some in San Diego reported a loss of power and cellphone issues.
Locally, customers with both Southern California Edison and Imperial Irrigation District were affected by the outage.
SCE is also dealing with the automatic shutdown of the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant when the power outage hit.
The company released the following statement: “Edison is working with the California Independent System Operator to determine grid factors that caused the two San Onofre units to trip offline as designed at approximately 3:38 p.m. Pacific (time).
“The shut-down process is proceeding safely and poses no danger to workers or the public. It is estimated at this time that the SCE customer counts (affected by the San Onofre shutdown) will be between 500 to 2,000 customers.
“Total SCE customers without power across the SCE system (due to the shutdown and other factors) now is 4,208 customers.”
And the outage may be even more widespread. One person even reported an outage to @KESQ in New Mexico.
News Channel 3 is investigating the cause of the outage and will post updates as soon as we get them.
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