Michael Lorusso knows from 28 years of experience with Southern California Edison how difficult maintenance outages can be for customers, especially during the summer. Lorusso manages the Ontario District, which serves 17 cities, including Rancho Cucamonga, Chino and Eastvale. He spoke with ENERGIZED to help explain why they’re necessary.

Q: Why are maintenance outages necessary during the summer?

A: SCE must maintain the power grid even on hot summer days to help ensure the safety and reliability of the electric system. The electric company has guidelines designed to minimize the inconvenience of maintenance outages, especially during extreme heat in the desert, while still completing the necessary work for safety and reliability.

“These outages may be scheduled up to 30 days in advance, and sometimes, it's not known what the actual temperature will be until we get closer to the scheduled day of work,” Lorusso said.

Q: Why can’t SCE complete maintenance outages during times of the year when the weather is cooler?

A: SCE attempts to schedule most outages during the Fall, Winter and Spring months and will work with customers to try to minimize the outage time or reschedule the work at a different time or day.

"We know how important it is to get the work completed as soon as possible, always taking into account the safety of our team members and the public, especially when it will be over 100 degrees that day," Lorusso said. "When it is that hot, we often consider starting work earlier in the day and, in some cases, will bring more people in to help reduce the outage time frame."

Q: How often do maintenance outages take place?

A: On average, SCE has 36,000 maintenance outages annually, though the company estimates there will be nearly 40,000 this year across its 50,000-square-mile service area because of wildfire mitigation work and grid modernization.

“We can re-route power and minimize the outage to impact as few customers as possible. However, some work may need to proceed to protect public safety and the electric system's reliability. This helps reduce the potential for unplanned emergency outages, which often take longer to restore than planned outages,” Lorusso said.

Q: What else does SCE do to help minimize the impact on customers?

A: Outage mitigation efforts include:

Q: What about holidays such as Easter and Independence Day?

A: SCE considers holidays, religious observations and major events in outage planning, working with communities, so any scheduled maintenance outage is minimally disruptive to customers.

Q: Does SCE plan these types of outages around customers with medical conditions who may need electricity all the time?

A: Eligible customers can also take advantage of the company's Critical Care Backup Battery Program. The battery is free and capable of powering medical devices in the event of a power outage, including a Public Safety Power Shutoff. Turning off power during high fire weather conditions remains SCE's tool of last resort to keep customers and communities safe. If there is an emergency such as a PSPS event or another type of outage that requires you to evacuate, the battery provides temporary power that will help you relocate to safety.