KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
Southern California Edison (SCE) has installed several weather stations throughout Santa Clarita to help predict high-risk fire conditions in an effort to help keep their customers safe from brush fires.
Sponsored Articles
“The purpose of the stations is for Edison to have really good localized weather information from these various monitoring systems that were strategically placed in our high-risk fire areas,” said Rudy Gonzales, a spokesperson for SCE.
SCE has installed eight weather stations in Canyon Country, Valencia and Castaic.
Photo Courtesy Of SoCal Edison
The weather stations are being installed on utility poles and have various sensors that provide real-time weather data, which includes: wind speed and wind gust behavior, temperature, humidity and solar radiation data every 10 minutes.
All of the information is then fed to advanced weather modeling software that can forecast high fire risk conditions down to a third of a mile.
“We will use that information we receive from the weather stations to determine where we need to devote our resources and possibly have first responders in place to be able to respond to the potential fire in our high-risk areas,” Gonzales said.
A total of 125 weather stations are going up all across Edison’s service territory this year and even more in 2019.
Related: SoCal Edison May Shut Off Power In High Fire Risk Areas Due To Severe Weather
In addition to the weather stations, other preventative measures are being implemented to protect customers and communities against the increasing threat of wildfires, according to officials.
In addition to installing weather stations, Edison has started replacing bare power lines with covered conductor power lines which are set to prevent small twigs and branches from catching on fire if they come in contact with the wires.
Edison has also started installing limited fuses to their system. If a foreign object comes into contact with the power lines, the fuse is set to de-energize the lines immediately, according to officials.
Another precautionary step the power company is taking is replacing their old wooden power poles with composite power poles, which are designed to be more resistant to fire.
A procedural change that Edison is implementing states that when power company officials see weather conditions creating extremely high-risk fire situations, Edison is set to shut off power in that area.
During the power shut-off, all power in a certain area will be shut down in order to prevent potential fires from starting as a result of their equipment.
If this happens, Edison is set to notify residents several times before the shut-off occurs.
“We will notify residents 48 hours prior to the shut-off, then again at 24 hours and then just before the shut-off happens,” Gonzales said.
Edison is encouraging all of their customers to make sure Edison has their up-to-date information so that they can get a hold of residents in the event a power shut-off is conducted.
Do you have a news tip? Call us at (661) 298-1220, or send an email to newstip@hometownstation.com.Report a typo or error, email Corrections@hometownstation.comKHTS FM 98.1 and AM 1220 is Santa Clarita’s only local radio station. KHTS mixes in a combination of news, traffic, sports, and features along with your favorite adult contemporary hits. Santa Clarita news and features are delivered throughout the day over our airwaves, on our website and through a variety of social media platforms. Our KHTS national award-winning daily news briefs are now read daily by 34,000+ residents. A vibrant member of the Santa Clarita community, the KHTS broadcast signal reaches all of the Santa Clarita Valley and parts of the high desert communities located in the Antelope Valley. The station streams its talk shows over the web, reaching a potentially worldwide audience. Follow @KHTSRadio on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
The real story is that Edison is incapable of building a distribution system that can function in windy conditions without catastrophically falling apart. They will merely turn off the power when it gets hot and windy, rather than fix their creaky grid.
When private utilities are up against billion dollar liability judgements their lawyers come up with brute force methods to protect the shareholders.
Guess who’s going to pay for this crap? Yep, you guessed right. It’s Y O U and all the rest of us who have Edison. They are now making a racket out of hitting Us in the pocket for every little idea they come up with. Like for example: your rates will go up because Edison is installing electrical charging stations in parks, schools and beaches. Why should I pay for power I don’t use? Let them install “Pay As You Go” stations for electric cars. Like an ATM, you put your card in and BUY your power. My God, the crap these guys come up with. Why? because being only a distributor has its drawbacks. Edison and other companies (except DWP) all buy power from companies like “Duke Energy”. Edison sold off their generating stations a decade ago !