November 2, 2007—The southern California wildfires that burned many homes and caused half a million people to evacuate last week also had dire impacts on the state’s electrical transmission system. The trouble started on Oct. 21, when the Acton Fire caused the Southwest Powerlink to go out of service. On Oct. 22, the state’s electrical grid operator—the California Independent Systems Operator (ISO)—declared an emergency when the Santiago Fire in Orange County caused two more high-voltage transmission lines to trip off-line.
To reduce stress on the power grid, the California ISO asked two utilities—Southern California Edison (SCE)and the San Diego Gas and Electric Company (SDG&E)—to reduce their electrical load by a total of 500 megawatts.
By Oct. 23, the fires had knocked out multiple transmission lines in the San Diego area, causing the California ISO to request voluntary energy conservation in San Diego. Over the course of that week, more than two dozen transmission lines were knocked out of service.
By Oct. 26, the emergency had passed, and utility crews were completing their repairs to the transmission lines. SDG&E says that nearly 80,000 of its customers lost power, and more than 1,000 of its utility poles burned in the fires.
For more information, see the SDG&E Web site.
