SCE continues planned power outages, IID has none scheduled
Southern California Edison is going ahead with its controversial planned power outages this week- despite the extreme heat.
One of the outages happened Monday morning in a neighborhood near Farrel and Raquet Club in Palm Springs. It did not end until after 2 p.m. when it was nearly 110 degrees. Another planned outage will take place Monday night at 8 p.m. in Cathedral City. It could last up to 10 hours.
As KESQ News Channel 3’s and CBS Local 2’s Katie Widner found out, the planned outages are only happening over the Summer with one of the two power companies that service the Coachella Valley.
“This is what we received on our gate. It’s a maintenance power outage notification with a scheduled time,” said Susan LeBlanc who lives in Cathedral City. “It was a horrible time to be doing it. At least during the day there are cooling centers open, places we can go, where I can take my pet for the afternoon, but at night, there’s nowhere to go.”
How much longer will the extreme heat wave continue in the Coachella Valley? The planned outage comes roughly a week after an SCE spokesperson, at a Palm Springs City Council meeting, said no power outages would be done during extreme-heat and that safety was the company’s first priority.
“We do have some bed-ridden residents that live in our neighborhood. We have actually been working with the HOA to see if they can contact those people and confirm that they have been warned and that they have back up equipment or whatever they need,” said Tony Hill, whose in-laws live in the community where the outage is set to take place.
Watch our previous story: Man recovering from triple bypass surgery fears planned power outage
The planned outage will overlap an hour of the Excessive Heat Warning that expires at 9 p.m. and is the latest in a recent string of controversial outages planned by the company. Many of residents KESQ and CBS Local 2’s Katie Widner spoke with are being forced to go to hotels and bring their pets along. Southern California Edison is not compensating them.
Watch: Nevada woman dies from heat exhaustion after AC unit breaks in townhouse On the other side of the Valley, residents who live in the eastern areas serviced by the Imperial Irrigation District are faring much better.
“We have no outages planned here in the Coachella Valley, generally we avoid maintenance in the Summer months,” said IID Officer of Media Communications Marion Champion.
Champion said if IID were to conduct a purposeful outage, their policy would be to do it during the early- morning hours and only on an emergency basis. A spokesperson for SCE said they do about 70 percent of their work in the Fall, Winter and early Spring months, more than most other territories they service.
Which power company a resident uses you is not currently a choice for customers. To find out if your home is scheduled for a planned outage, click the link below..
Check SCE’s website to find power outages in your area
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