SCE admits violations in Malibu Canyon fire

September 24, 2013 | By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has approved a settlement agreement with Southern California Edison (SCE) to resolve issues regarding the October 2007 Malibu Canyon Fire and significantly enhance public safety. The settlement agreement provides for financial penalties for wrongdoing, as well as increases safety going forward by requiring inspections and repairs to make poles in the Malibu area better able to withstand high winds.

Credit: Tim Williams, San Diego, CA/Wikimedia Commons

The Malibu Canyon Fire occurred when three utility poles fell during a Santa Ana windstorm in October 2007. The settlement agreements act as a deterrent to future violations and require the inspection of 61,453 poles for compliance with CPUC safety rules, repair or replacement of poles found in violation, and more stringent safety requirements for poles in Malibu.

Under the $37 million settlement approved between SCE and the CPUC's Safety and Enforcement Division (SED), SCE admits that a pole was overloaded in violation of CPUC rules due to the facilities that were attached to the pole by another utility and that it violated Public Utilities Code when it failed to take prompt action to prevent the pole overloading. SCE also admits that it violated Rule 1.1 of the CPUC's Rules of Practice and Procedure when the utility withheld pertinent information from the CPUC.

SCE will pay, in shareholder funds, a fine of $20 million to California's General Fund and $17 million to assess 1,453 utility poles in the Malibu area to be certain they meet the CPUC's regulations. Substandard poles found by the assessment will be remediated. The settlement requires that all line elements in Malibu Canyon have a wind-load safety factor of at least four, the most stringent requirement under CPUC regulations, which will help mitigate any repeat of the damage caused by the 2007 fire to Malibu Canyon and the surrounding communities.

"CPUC approval of these settlements is an important step to assure the future safety of utility poles should the state again suffer from extraordinary weather conditions -- not at all an unlikely prospect," said Commissioner Catherine J.K. Sandoval. "The settlement provides for a safety audit to determine whether poles and pole attachments, upon which our electric and communications systems depend, can withstand the maximum, reasonably foreseeable impacts of Santa Ana windstorms. Moreover, the costs incurred for the safety steps in these two settlements will be borne by the utilities, not ratepayers."

For more:
- see the SCE settlement proposal

http://www.fierceenergy.com/story/sce-admits-violations-malibu-canyon-fire/2013-09-24