Item 26 - Adoption of the City of Santa Ana Emergency Operations Plan

Home Browse Search

City of Santa Ana Emergency Operations Plan Part I Basic Plan Rotating Outages — Rotating outages are a last resort measure used by electric utilities to avoid a total blackout of the power grid, when all attempts at power conservation and increasing the power supply have fallen short and demand is still exceeding supply. During rotating outages, electricity to individual circuits will be intentionally shut off for a specific time period, usually 1 to 2 hours at a time. The individual circuits turned off will be geographically dispersed throughout the region, to ensure that power outages are not concentrated in one area at a time, which could lead to looting, widespread traffic jams or other problems in the blacked -out area. Circuits supplying Essential Use Facilities, like police and fire stations, jails and hospitals, are pre -identified and exempted from intentional blackout. SCE has pre -identified their rotating outage areas by groups and maintains maps identifying these service areas. These maps are available on the "Outage Center" page of SCE's website www.sce.com, and customers can find their outage group on the front page of their monthly electricity bill. If, after the first blackout period, demand still exceeds supply, the blackout will rotate to the next pre -identified circuits. Thus, the outage "rotates" until sufficient power supply is restored. It is important to note that every outage group, and therefore every rotation, does include some portion of the City of Santa Ana. As the power supply stabilizes, the emergency may be over or CA ISO may step back down to Flex Alert, Energy Emergency Alert 1 or 2 status. Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) Public Safety Power Shutoffs are the de -energizing of selected distribution circuits that traverse High Fire Risk areas during extreme weather, such as high winds, to prevent downed or damaged power lines from igniting wildfires. SCE and other utilities, upon receiving or formulating weather forecasts, will attempt to predict the lines most at risk for damage and wildfire ignition, and will preemptively de -energize those circuits for periods of hours or days, until the damage and wildfire ignition threat has abated. SCE's process for Public Safety Power Shutoffs: 4-7 Days Ahead - When forecasts indicate extreme fire conditions, SCE will begin predictive modeling to assess potential impact. 4 Days Ahead - SCE monitors fire weather watch alerts from the National Weather Service and continues to refine predictive models. Incident responders are placed on alert. 2 Days Ahead - Extreme fire conditions forecasted. Coordinate with the emergency management community, first responders and local government first. Initiate customer notifications on possible PSPS. First notification sent to customers. 1 Day Ahead - Extreme fire conditions imminent; continue to coordinate with emergency management community, first responders, local government, and customers of possible PSPS. Second notification sent to customers. During: Power Is Shut Off - Extreme fire conditions validated by field resources, notify the emergency management community, first responders, local government, and customers to power shutoff. Note that an erratic or sudden onset of conditions may impact the ability to provide advanced notice to customers. Third notification sent to customers. After: Power Is Restored - Extreme fire conditions subside to safe levels; field resources perform inspections and patrols of equipment, then power is restored to affected communities; notification sent to impacted parties. Fourth notification sent to customers. The City of Santa Ana does not lie in a High Fire Risk Area and is not believed to receive power from any distribution circuits likely to be de -energized during PSPS events, however, some distribution circuits do lie close to the City and the circuit coverage maps are not always exact. Electrical Transmission Emergencies While Demand Emergencies occur when demand for electricity exceeds the available supply, Transmission Emergencies occur as a result of overloads or accidental or intentional damage or losses to local transmission