SANTA MONICA—Southern California Edison is working in Santa Monica to replace old equipment, including faulty circuits and underground vaults.
“SCE is … making a significant investment to replace aging equipment through infrastructure replacement projects,” stated an official report to the City Council. “These projects expand and upgrade transmission and distribution networks and improve reliability by replacing equipment before it fails.”
Improving reliability is a priority, because Santa Monica’s rankings are still down from 2011, when they were among the best in Southern California.
In 2014, more than a quarter of all power outages were caused by equipment failure. The outages lasted longer than those caused by any other factor, including animal interference.
To prevent equipment failure in the future, Edison is planning to replace eight vaults and rebuild two circuits at the cost of around $4.5 million.
Three vault replacements—located at Arizona Avenue and Second Street, Marine and Main Street, Broadway and Second Street—have already been completed. Two more replacements—at Arizona and Fourth Court and San Vicente Boulevard and First Court—are scheduled for completion by July.
The two circuits slated for improvement are located on Ashland Avenue and Pearl Street, and San Vicente and Montana Avenue. Work on the former is projected to be done by July; work on the latter should be completed by the end of 2015.
Edison will be inspecting the city’s electrical poles to ensure that they comply with new safety requirements.