Beverly Hills News
Power Outage Leaves Blocks Without Electricity
By Molly Davis
Jul 5, 2009 - 2:11:48 PM

BEVERLY HILLS—Parts of South Beverly Drive and South Reeves Drive lost power Wednesday, July, 1 due to a planned power outage.

The 200 and 300 blocks of South Beverly Drive and South Reeves Drive were without power from about midnight June 30 to mid-afternoon  July 1.

Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills. Photo by Joanne DeCaro Afornalli

The outage was necessary in order to do upgrades to the electrical system and replace a high voltage electrical switch, according to Mark Olson, region manager for Southern California Edison. 

Olson told Canyon News the city’s active inspection program helps determine if equipment is in need of replacement so it can be replaced before it fails and causes a longer outage.

Olson said once the workers began the project they encountered technical difficulties that caused the outage to take longer than anticipated.  The power was originally supposed to be back at 9 a.m. 

He said customers had been notified of the planned outage and that Edison tried to do the project overnight when the need for power is minimal.

“We apologize for the inconvenience and we normally try to do good job at estimating,  but especially with underground equipment you don’t always know until you get into project the extent of work that may need to be done,” Olson said.