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Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Climate
- Los Angeles Times
Dry, windy weekend heightens California's wildfire risks, triggering power shutoffs for thousands
Thousands of Californians had electricity shut off Friday with even more possibly losing power over the weekend due to heightened wildfire risks from a weather system that is bringing dry, gusty winds across much of the state. Pacific Gas & Electric, the state's largest utility, turned off power to almost 7,000 customers in Central and Northern California on Friday 'due to severe weather and wildfire risk,' continuing shutoffs that began Thursday and were expected to continue through the weekend, PG&E wrote in an update. Southern California Edison, the largest power provider in the Southland, shut off power to more than a thousand customers Friday morning, mostly in Santa Barbara and Kern counties, but said more than 30,000 other customers could lose power through Sunday as winds remain a concern. 'With the windy conditions, still pretty low humidities, and the finer fuels being pretty dry, we're looking at elevated to brief critical fire conditions,' said Kristen Lund, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Oxnard, about the southern Santa Barbara County and surrounding areas. Though the conditions in Southern California don't meet the threshold to trigger a red flag warning, there will still be the potential for a fast-growing fire, she said. Jeff Monford, a spokesperson for Edison, said the planned outages are 'an essential tool for public safety.' The so-called Public Safety Power Shutoffs are initiated by utilities to minimize potential fire sparks during high-risk conditions. The state's three biggest utilities — PG&E, SCE and San Diego Gas & Electric — began adopting power shutoffs as a strategy to reduce the risk of starting a fire about a decade ago after their equipment in the years prior started some of the deadliest and most destructive fires in modern history. SCE's equipment is part of the investigation into the start of the Eaton fire in January, that killed 18 people and destroyed thousands of homes and buildings in Altadena and surrounding communities. In Southern California, further outages were being considered for other areas of Santa Barbara County, as well as Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Kern, Inyo, Tulare and Mono counties, SCE said. PG&E said it was considering outages for almost 12,000 customers across 15 counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Colusa, Fresno, Glenn, Merced, Monterey, San Benito, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, Santa Clara, Shasta, Stanislaus, Tehama and Trinity. A red flag warning, indicating critical fire weather conditions, had been issued in a few pockets of the state, and across wide swaths of the American West. In the Indian Wells valley area of the Mojave Desert, in parts of northern San Bernardino, Inyo and Kern counties, westward winds with gusts up to 60 mph were expected through early Saturday, the National Weather Service wrote in the red flag warning. The weather service warned that 'any fires that develop will likely spread rapidly.' In Lassen, Alpine and Mono counties, near the Nevada border, a red flag warning was also issued through midnight Friday. The critical warnings also included almost all of Nevada and Utah, northern Arizona and much of Colorado. 'A combination of strong winds, low relative humidity, and warm temperatures can contribute to extreme fire behavior,' the weather service warned of these areas. 'Avoid outdoor activities that can cause a spark near dry vegetation, such as yard work, target shooting, or campfires.' Although other areas hadn't yet been elevated to a red flag warning, the weather service had issued several other advisories about high wind and fire concerns, most lasting through Sunday. Across much of southern Santa Barbara County and into northern L.A. County, the weather service had issued a high wind alert, warning that 'gusty northerly winds are expected ... for the next several nights.' In southern Santa Barbara County, winds on Thursday evening hit 60 mph, but the weather service said 'even stronger winds are expected Friday night.' Lund said those conditions would create high fire risk. All of the Mojave Desert was under a wind advisory for most of the weekend. Much of the Sacramento Valley and the northern San Joaquin Valley had been put under a fire weather watch for Saturday and Sunday: 'The combination of gusty winds and low humidity can cause fire to rapidly grow in size and intensity,' that warning said. Parts of the Santa Barbara County coast and Santa Ynez mountains were also under a high wind watch Friday, with gusts up to 60 mph possible.
Los Angeles Times
11-06-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
SCE's Commitment to Helping Rebuild Los Angeles
For nearly 140 years, Southern California Edison has been part of the communities we serve across Greater Los Angeles. The heartbreaking losses suffered in the January 2025 wildfires were deeply personal to every team member at Edison International and SCE, and our thoughts remain with all who were impacted. When the wildfires ignited across Southern California on Jan. 7, our teams sprang into action to support emergency response efforts, with safety as our number one priority. Within days, over 3,500 SCE crew members, contractors and mutual assistance personnel were on the ground working to restore power. Crews worked tirelessly for weeks and restored power to all customers who could safely take service by Feb. 21. While much of the restoration work is now complete, the road forward to rebuild, and to rebuild stronger than ever, is just beginning. As we move forward with rebuilding, we remain fully committed to supporting a thorough, transparent investigation of the cause of the Eaton Fire. While the cause remains unknown at this time, we take seriously the possibility that SCE's equipment was involved in the ignition. We are working closely with authorities to better understand the events that led to this tragedy and will share details throughout the investigation. Our customers deserve transparency. Following the wildfires, team members immediately started working on a clear plan to build back stronger. Building back stronger means hearing directly from communities about what matters most. Since January, over 50 listening sessions have been held to hear from community members, with input from customers, elected officials, local businesses and clergy members to better understand their experiences, perspectives and concerns. This input has been instrumental in shaping SCE's rebuilding plan. In April, we submitted initial rebuilding plans in a letter to California Governor Gavin Newsom, outlining work underway and initiatives being explored to support the rebuild of impacted electrical distribution equipment in the Altadena and Malibu areas. Much of the rebuilding work is already underway, including undergrounding hundreds of miles of distribution power lines and integrating advanced technologies. This work will make Altadena and Malibu more resilient and secure, while being powered by clean and affordable energy. Undergrounding distribution power lines has important safety, reliability and resiliency benefits including reducing the risk of wildfire. Importantly, placing these power lines underground reduces the need for Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS), which lessens the impacts and frustrations for customers during extreme weather and high fire risk conditions. Typically, projects to underground lines can take years to complete because of lengthy permitting, planning and construction processes. In the burn scar areas, projects are being expedited, and some lines will be finished in months, thanks to cooperation among city, county and other agencies. In Altadena and neighboring SCE-served areas, more than 40 circuit miles of power lines will be moved underground in high fire risk areas (HFRA). Two circuit miles are already under construction, with completion expected in the coming months. In Malibu and neighboring SCE-served areas within and near the Palisades Fire burn scar, more than 90 circuit miles will be undergrounded. This includes nearly all distribution circuits in the current HFRA boundary, most of which was already targeted for undergrounding as part of our Wildfire Mitigation Plan. Sixteen circuit miles are underway, with completion expected this year. Power lines that are not being placed underground are being hardened with coated wire, called covered conductor, which further reduces the risk of wildfire ignitions when trees and debris contact the line. Across SCE's service area, more than 6,500 miles of power lines have already been upgraded with this coated wire. Consistent with our grid hardening plans throughout the service area, we are designing underground systems with more automated switching and technology to detect faults and improve the ability to locate issues, reduce disruptions to as few customers as possible and restore service faster. These upgrades should reduce the frequency and duration of any customer outages. Importantly, the new infrastructure will have increased capacity to accommodate future electrical demand in these communities. Our rebuilding plans also represent an important opportunity to increase community resiliency. We are exploring ways to create designated community resiliency zones for extended emergencies, using battery storage at facilities like schools. Battery backups are also being provided for critical care customers who require electric service for life-sustaining equipment, and as customers rebuild, our team will work with builders to install electric vehicle chargers and other clean energy technology like heat pumps. We have ambitious goals for rebuilding and will hold ourselves accountable to achieving them. We live and work in these communities, and we take seriously the responsibility to build back the power system stronger and more resilient than ever. And when we experience the next extreme weather event, our communities will be more resilient and better prepared to safely power through. That's our commitment to you.
Straits Times
09-06-2025
- Climate
- Straits Times
Los Angeles wildfires were 10 times bigger than utility's AI forecast
FILE PHOTO: A drone view shows workers cleaning debris from destroyed homes for residents of the Eaton Fire in Altadena, California, U.S., March 10, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo FILE PHOTO: An aerial view of the fire damage caused by the Eaton Fire is shown in Altadena, California, U.S. January 22, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Southern California Edison's internal wildfire forecasts underestimated the potential size of the Eaton Canyon fire in Los Angeles by a factor of ten in the days leading up to a deadly conflagration in January, according to documents reviewed by Reuters. The miss suggests potential weaknesses in the utility's fire modeling capabilities that factored into its response to the January wildfire threats, despite being upgraded with improved computing, datasets and artificial intelligence. At the time, wildfires whipsawed through Los Angeles' western flank near Santa Monica and Eaton Canyon in the east as they consumed more than 34,000 acres (13,750 hectares) - or some 53 square miles - turning entire neighborhoods to ash. Although no official cause for the Eaton Canyon blaze has been released, numerous lawsuits have claimed SCE's decision to keep power flowing to some lines and towers in the Altadena area led to the circumstances that triggered it. SCE has said the cause and circumstances around the fire are under investigation and will be for some time, and defended its modeling capabilities. "We are confident with our fire spread modeling and weather forecasting," Raymond Fugere, SCE's asset intelligence director, told Reuters in an interview. Fugere said SCE's simulations could have shown higher estimates for acres burned in hard-hit areas. Variations in wind patterns and available fuels in hard-hit areas may not have been fully accounted for in the fire spread modeling, he said. "But overall, we do feel confident with our modeling because it is giving us very actionable information to be able to make decisions," he said. SCE's simulations predicted a Jan. 7 ignition in Eaton Canyon that could scorch about 1,000 acres within eight hours without fire suppression, according to an SCE fire potential forecast obtained by Reuters through a public records request. SCE told Reuters those fire spread simulations were factored into the utility's power shutoff decisions as strong seasonal winds and dry conditions escalated the looming wildfire threat. The Eaton fire ignited as forecast on Jan. 7, but ultimately consumed some 14,000 acres, destroying around 9,400 homes and buildings, and killing 17 civilians – making it the centerpiece of one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history. Joseph Mitchell, a scientist and wildfire expert witness for California utility regulators, said SCE's predictions missed the mark mainly because its models were only running simulations that extend eight hours after an ignition. The bulk of the Eaton fire's damage happened well after the eight-hour mark. Michael Wara, a wildfire policy expert at Stanford Law School, said the wildfire modeling may also have erred because it is better tuned to simulating fire in dense shrubs and woodlands, instead of blocks of homes and businesses. "Altadena was a wildland fire for about 20 minutes, and then it became an urban conflagration ... where houses are burning houses down, and where gardens are the fuel type not ... mixed conifer forests," Wara said. SCE, a unit of Edison International, acknowledged it is evaluating changes to its wildfire risk models, including whether to use 24-hour fire spread simulations in the future. "The January 2025 wildfires raise important questions regarding the spread of wildfires into built urban environments," the company said in a May 16 filing with regulators. SCE has previously acknowledged that 24-hour simulations might capture more extreme events where firefighting resources are limited, according to regulatory filings with the California Public Utilities Commission prior to the fires. But SCE's Fugere said the longer simulations produce more uncertainty. UPGRADED MODELS SCE's forecast was the biggest test yet of upgraded forecasting capabilities since California Governor Gavin Newsom launched the "Wildfire Innovation Sprint" in 2019 – an initiative to encourage the use of AI to predict disasters and safeguard lives and property. Since then, SCE has built four supercomputer clusters capable of generating 13 billion simulations across 400 weather scenarios and 29 million ignition points, according to regulatory filings. The company also began using the services of Technosylva, a La Jolla, California-based company, which received $383,000 in state funding in 2019 to develop forecasting tools for utilities and emergency responders. Technosylva Chief Executive Bryan Spear told Reuters his company's risk models captured the magnitude of the Los Angeles wildfire five days in advance, allowing firefighters to make better preparations for the looming catastrophe. SCE's equipment has not been blamed for starting the massive Palisades fire, but the utility's forecast also vastly underestimated its potential size. The separate blaze started on the same day as the Eaton Canyon fire. SCE's forecast projected up to 1,000 acres burned in the Pacific Palisades area, according to the document. Actual wildfire destruction there included 23,448 acres burned, 12 civilian deaths and nearly 7,000 structures destroyed, according to Cal Fire. Together the Eaton and Palisades fires destroyed more than 16,000 structures and caused most of the $250 billion in economic losses estimated by AccuWeather. SCE plans to spend another $8 million on upgrading fire science and modeling this year, up from $2 million in 2018, company disclosures show. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Leaders
05-06-2025
- Business
- Leaders
ROSHN Partners with Singapore Cooperation Enterprise to Drive Real Estate Innovation
ROSHN Group, a Public Investment Fund (PIF) subsidiary, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Singapore Cooperation Enterprise (SCE) to promote innovation and collaboration in the real estate sector. The agreement focuses on fostering institutional partnerships, sharing best practices in urban governance, and developing frameworks for joint efforts in urban planning and commercial procurement. The MoU was signed during a visit by ROSHN representatives to Singapore as part of the Group's 'ROSHNEXT' innovation program. The visit aimed to explore cooperation opportunities with Singaporean government bodies, academic institutions, and private-sector entities active in the real estate industry. Throughout the visit, ROSHN engaged with leading researchers, policymakers, and industry professionals to exchange expertise and explore areas for long-term collaboration. Discussions centered around applied research, skill development, and the potential for joint innovation programs. Topics also included cutting-edge approaches to urban planning, engineering, infrastructure, and property technology. Yassen Kattan, ROSHN Group's Executive Director of Strategy and Corporate Affairs, emphasized that the partnership with SCE marks a significant step toward sustained innovation. He highlighted the collaboration's role in integrating advanced solutions into the design, development, and operation of urban communities, supporting Saudi Arabia's broader goal of building a knowledge- and innovation-driven economy. Related Topics: ROSHN Green Initiative Center: Inspiring Future Environmental Leaders Saudi Arabia Welcomes Foreign Real Estate Investors Outside Holy Cities All You Need to Know about Hajj Rituals: A Step-by-Step Guide Discover Top Hotels Near Masjid Al-Haram for Hajj 2025 Short link : Post Views: 8
Biz Bahrain
30-05-2025
- Politics
- Biz Bahrain
SCE announces lifting fishing ban of Safi, Shaari, Andag fish
The Supreme Council for the Environment announced that the seasonal fishing ban on spangled Emperor (Shaari), rabbitfish (Safi) and seabream (Andag) fish in the territorial waters of the Kingdom of Bahrain, effective from Saturday, May 31. The ban, which began in early April, forms part of national efforts to protect marine resources and promote their sustainability. The SCE underscored the General Directorate of Marine Resources' commitment to preserving marine biodiversity and regulating fishing activities in line with international environmental standards, to maintain a balance between economic utilisation and long-term sustainability of marine resources. The SCE clarified that the ban was implemented under Edict (2) of 2024 concerning the prohibition of catching Shaari, Safi, and Andag fish. The measure was introduced to safeguard fish stocks and support environmental balance, contributing directly to the rehabilitation of marine ecosystems and ensuring the sustainability of marine resources for future generations. The directorate commended the efforts of partner entities involved in monitoring and enforcement during the ban period and emphasised the importance of continued cooperation with regulatory authorities to achieve the national goals of protecting marine biodiversity and reinforcing the sustainability of marine resources. BNA(R)
