8 Common Causes of Outages

The reasons for outages can vary, and can affect the length of time it takes to restore service back to your home. Here are some of the most common causes of outages. 

1. Storms: Wind, heat, ice and snow are the most common causes of widespread power outages. 

2. Trees: During high winds, or trimming by an untrained professional, limbs can come into contact with power lines and cause interruptions. You can always request a tree trimming service on SCE’s website. 

3. Vehicles: A vehicle collision with a utility pole can cause a power outage. 

4. Earthquakes: Quakes of all sizes can damage electrical facilities and power lines. 

5. Animals: Although we place barriers between wildlife and electricity equipment, squirrels, snakes and other small animals may still cause a short circuit.

6. Lightning: When lightning strikes electrical equipment, transmission towers, wires and poles, outages can occur. 

7. Excavation digging: Sometimes, underground cables are disturbed by digging. It’s important to call 811 before any gardening or digging project. 

8. High Power Demand: During heat waves and other times of unusually high power demand, overburdened electric cables, transformers, and other electrical equipment can melt and fail.