Palm Desert City Council tables SCE power outage resolution until November

PALM DESERT, Calif. (KESQ) — The Palm Desert City Council voted unanimously Thursday to table a proposed resolution asking Southern California Edison to minimize planned power outages during the summer.

The proposal comes after concerns over a maintenance outage in July that would have affected 878 customers during a period of extreme heat. The outage was later rescheduled by SCE.

During Thursday’s meeting, residents shared concerns about the impact planned outages can have on local businesses.

City leaders also raised concerns about how much notice the city and residents receive before planned outages.

“I understand for emergency outages, but we have residents saying even when it’s a planned outage they don’t know until it happens,” said Councilmember Karina Quintanilla.

SCE representatives encouraged residents to use the utility’s online resources to stay informed about planned outages.

“That’s probably the most important thing I will tell you, residents out here, be prepared for anything,” the SCE representative said.

SCE said it is following the guidelines currently in place while balancing planned maintenance with the need to maintain a reliable power grid.

The utility also said rescheduling some maintenance could delay projects and create additional reliability and safety risks.

During the discussion, the Mayor Evan Trubee asked whether SCE could commit to avoiding planned outages during the summer months.

The SCE representative responded, “We can do as much as we can -- we try to do outages for five hours or at nights.”

City leaders acknowledged the need for regular maintenance but said they also want to limit the impact outages can have on the community.

The resolution will now return to the council in November, giving city leaders and SCE more time to discuss the proposal and address questions about how planned outages are scheduled and communicated.

Stay with News Channel 3 for more.