SCE fined $10M over 2020 blackouts

Southern California Edison is facing a $10 million fine for the “poor execution" of widespread power shutoffs two years ago that were designed to prevent devastating wildfires, the state's Public Utilities Commission announced Wednesday.

Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) are meant as last resorts to mitigate fire danger during extreme weather. 

"Our customers who are impacted, they feel the extended outage, the extreme personal hardship," SCE Vice President Jill Anderson said. 

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) blasted SCE, saying the company needs to correct "mistakes and operational gaps" it made during PSPS in 2020, including some in Riverside County.

Regulators said SCE's "PSPS execution appeared tactless, and in many regards, seemed deficient in meeting the standard its customers deserve." 

SCE calls the fine excessive and unnecessary.

"We feel like this is counterproductive, because it focuses on the early stages of our PSPS program, not on the tremendous progress we've made since then," said spokesman David Song. 

Last Thanksgiving, more than 20,000 SCE customers in Riverside County had their power shut off during a Red Flag Warning. 

"Right in the midst of cooking Thanksgiving dinner, all of a sudden everything went black," said Banning resident Steve Creason. 

Regulators said SCE "was not able to provide" advance notification of power shutoffs to thousands of customers before several of their 2020 outages. Nearly 10,000 Riverside County residents were at risk. 

SCE says it's made broad improvements like hardening the grid and adding battery storage. There was a 45 percent reduction in power shutoffs' duration from 2020 to 2021, officials said. 

"We have heard loud and clearly...that the company must do better," Song said. 

On the horizon, state energy officials have said they're worried about rolling blackouts this summer, but SCE officials said they believe that's "unlikely."

SCE now has 30 days to pay the $10 million fine and take corrective actions, or it can request a hearing. 

SCE officials said they are reviewing the order and considering how to respond.