The company is named for the well-known genius who’s intrinsically linked to the light bulb—but some West Hollywood residents are grumbling that it’s not such a bright idea for Southern California Edison to proceed with planned power outages during a blistering heat wave.
On Twitter, Edison has responded to some frustrated Tweets from people upset about outages. The company has Tweeted that it has “cancelled all non-essential outages due to the heatwave.” But tonight’s work in WeHo apparently has been deemed essential and is slated to continue as scheduled. In addition to complaints on social media, WEHOville.com has heard from an irate WeHo City Hall staffer who anonymously sounded off on the scheduled outages.
Southern California Edison spokesman Paul Griffo confirmed that the work slated for tonight is moving forward as scheduled. He said he could not yet confirm whether work planned for future days would still continue as planned.
“We know it’s difficult to be without power,” Griffo said. He said that some work is critical and “we have to proceed.”
Southern California Edison earlier had described its series of projects in West Hollywood as part of a major planned rebuilding of infrastructure, which would suggest that tonight’s power shut-down wasn’t something that had to be done in response to an immediate problem. But Griffo said he could not speak as to why the specific work planned for tonight is time-sensitive. Griffo said that a number of factors are considered, including the health and safety of customers and employees.
WeHo City Councilmember Jeffrey Prang on Tuesday distributed an e-mail blast with details about the dates, times and affected areas of the scheduled outages. (Prang noted that affected customers will be or have been notified by Edison.)
Here is a list of scheduled work, per Prang’s e-mail:
• Wednesday, Sept. 17 – 7 p.m.-7 a.m.
Melrose/Huntley area, including the Pacific Design Center and some businesses on Santa Monica Boulevard and Melrose Avenue
• Wednesday, Sept. 17 – 7 p.m.-6 a.m.
8500 – 8600 block of Melrose Avenue
300-800 block of Huntley Drive
300 – 800 block of Westbourne Drive
600 – 900 block of West Knoll Drive
8700 block of Sherwood Drive
500 – 800 block of Westmount Drive
8500 – 8600 block of Rugby Drive
8600 – 8700 block of Santa Monica Boulevard
500 & 700 blocks of San Vicente Boulevard
Power Outage Areas:
Traffic signal lights at Melrose Ave./Huntley Dr. and Melrose Ave./San Vicente Blvd. intersections.
Jobsite: 8624 Melrose Ave. at Huntley
A contractor will be working to replace underground structure, with the power outage affecting 680 customers.
• Friday, Sept. 19 – 8 a.m.-4 p.m.
Power Outage Areas:
8800 block of Melrose Ave.
8800 block of Rangely Ave.
Jobsite: 8823 – 8937 Rangely Ave. in alley between Robertson and Almont
A contractor will be working to replace a deteriorated power pole along the alley, with the power outage affecting 11 customers.
• Wednesday, Sept. 24 – 7 p.m.-7 a.m.
Melrose/Huntley area, including the Pacific Design Center and some businesses on Santa Monica Boulevard and Melrose Avenue
West Hollywood has extended its “cooling center” at Plummer Park through Thursday, and things are expected to cool off starting Friday. However, the sweltering heat wave’s high temperatures have been extending well into the night—so there may be an uncomfortably hot night or two ahead before there’s any relief.
In addition to the WeHo cooling center, a list of L.A.-area cooling centers, splash pads and pools is available online.
This story was updated to include comment from a Southern California Edison spokesperson.
Emilija, I support and respect your and, the people of West Hollywood’s political interests. I share the struggle for LGBTQ, Women’s and, Minority Rights. You and the people of WeHo are NOT alone! 🙂
Oh so the guy who thinks he’s the majority and, thinks we are all clowns? Well it’s time for our WeHo SlutWalk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN2ZJ_02FwY See what he says now! We will make sure to block traffic and if he don’t like it, he can move to Wasilla AK for a tenth of the price where he will be in the majority!
Yes Luca D, I know it’s sad that someone would call the Good People of WeHo “clowns” on The AIDS Walk and I was at the AIDS Walk where some teabaggers were using some highly pejorative terms in reference to the attendants. Just ignore them, it will ruin their entire day! 😉
pure and utter racism, disgusting.
I have some friends of mine who have photovoltaic panels and deep cycle batteries so they have all the power they need to run their air conditioning or anything else they want. Southern California Edison can to proceed to have all the outages they want and they are completely unaffected. Best of all they end up producing surplus energy that is sent back to the power grid that they get paid for! I’m looking forward to triple digit temperatures and complete power outages so we can throw our way cool NO republicans party!
Only in west hollywood does the power get shut off multiple times a yr. this city is the biggest hassle ever. I happened to move here the day they had aids walk. Talk about a total disaster they blocked off all kinda main streets just so some clowns could walk!
The PUC regulates utilities.
they did work on ogden drive monday night and the power was out for 15 hours!! and i did not receive a postcard or email…
Absolutely ridiculous. Agreed somethjng needs to be fixed as I lose power a couple times a year (rugby behind 24 hr). Last time a un trimmed, blowing bamboo at 866 Westmount caused a multi hour, extensive outage. But to do this work in the heat (we had another outage planned for August.) at least it’s overnight but it should be later. 10-7 or so. It’s been in the 90s straight through till 9 all this week. Looks like some public utility doesn’t like to have to reschedule. (Ps, we get these postcards often 6-7 days before the planned outage, so… Read more »