RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif. — On Tuesday night, the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council declared a new local emergency and sent a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom. The letter urged Newsom to declare a state of emergency for the area in response to SoCal Gas shutting off gas service for 135 homes last week in the landslide area.
Residents could soon face another utility halting service.
Homeowner Marianne Hunter says area residents received a notice from SoCal Edison noting that power services could be shut off in the near future.
“My husband has a pacemaker that needs electricity to be monitored. There have been times when we could not get in or out of our property with our cars because of the roads and we’re very considered about our neighbors, some of whom are in really bad shape,” Hunter said.
SoCal Edison spokesperson Reggie Kumar says customers in the area were notified about possible power shutoffs because of land movement and encouraged customers to seek alternative options.
“We are actively monitoring the situation and working to maintain reliability for as long as it is safe to do so. We are exploring all potential solutions. The nature of this emergency has created a beyond design basis event,” Kumar said.
The City of Rancho Palos Verdes hosted an information center at the Ladera Linda Community Center on Aug. 6 and will host another event on Aug 8 from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. The center will feature city, county and state agencies as well as third-party contractors, solar installers and more.
Hunter says the idea of losing another utility is what’s leading her to prepare with solar now.
“We’re going with extra battery backup,” she said. “So that, if Southern California Edison is without power while we’re still hooked up, we’re ok and if we have a bunch of gray days, we’re ok.”
Energy markets and policy scientist Galen Barbose with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory says he hasn’t seen an energy utility provider pull out services from a community yet. But he says some power outage prone communities are creating their own smaller networks called microgrids.
“This is something that we’re starting to see in parts of the country that suffer frequently from long duration power interruptions either as a result of hurricanes or other factors,” Barbose said. "Microgrids are one strategy and increasingly there’s interest in trying to develop that model more broadly as a way of making the grid more resilient and allowing communities to become more resilient and more independent.”
In the meantime, Hunter is hoping her upcoming investment will be worth it in the long run.
“We all want to stay in our homes and if things are a little less convenient, we are resourceful and we’ll deal with it,” she said.