Update #2 on Power Outage: 1:50 p.m. on Aug. 12
By Doug Suisman
President, The Canyon Alliance
Alerted by Sharon Kilbride about LADWP crew on Ocean Avenue Extension at Mabery, I spoke with one of the LADWP field workers there. This was an unofficial conversation. His crew was in a “cherry picker” inspecting the transformer and wiring at the top of one of the power poles.
He told me that the outage today and last week are both the result of interrupted circuits, and both are related to the new undergrounding of primary electrical service for Pacific Palisades along Sunset. Last week, LADWP was able to track the location of the problem at the corner of Chautauqua and Sunset. He said he saw it himself. He blamed the contractor working on the undergrounding project for “screwing it up.”
The problem this time was worse because they didn’t know where the circuit break was. In order to find it they had to determine the direction of the electrical “flow.” He said this is easy on above-ground lines but very difficult on underground lines. I asked why he was all the way over on Ocean Avenue Extension if the problem was on Sunset. He said they have to go location by location to try and determine this flow issue. He said this makes it difficult to pinpoint the location. They quickly left the area and were moving on to the next location indicated on their digital map in the truck.
All of this was not promising for a quick resolution of the outage, although there were some reports of power coming back on in a few places. This restoration seemed spotty. It may be that as they “clear” certain segments of the system, they could bring the power on, but this was not clear.
The LADWP’s prime contractor for trenching and undergrounding seems to be a large engineering firm, WA Racik, specializing in trenching. The prime contractor for the above-ground work and pole replacement is Petrelli. It should not be surprising if individual employees of these contractors are not informed about the problem, its causes, its solutions, or timing of resolution.
Meanwhile Luke Schneeman at Councilwoman Traci Park’s office has provided information about claims residents and business ownerrs can make to LADWP for damaged food, allthough it is unclear whether this event would qualify since an issue has to be a result of LADWP negligence.
Claims can be made at this link: https://www.ladwp.com/account/report-problem/claims-procedure#230548828-2448706353.
An hour after power returned on Aug. 12, LADWP representative Christy Holland shared the following email: “Crews report that as of 3:35 pm, all power has been restored to those affected by the overnight outage in the Pacific Palisades. We appreciate your patience and understanding while we worked to complete this complicated repair. If you haven’t already, you can sign up for outage alerts at https://www.ladwp.com/outages.”
