Patch Blog: Occupy Edison!

Heavy, seasonal wind and suddenly we don’t have power for the next two days.  I can’t say I’m surprised, but I gotta ask: What’s going on with So Cal Edison?!

I’ve lived in La Crescenta for over 20 years with Edison as my power supplier.  I learned a long time ago, that with Edison, power outages come with every season – not just with the winds of autumn and spring, but also with the rains of winter, and the heat of summer. If you have Edison, you know what I’m talking about.

But why is this so? Southern California Edison, part of Edison International, is a huge corporation with tremendous resources. They are so quick to push us on to “state-of-the-art” “smart grid technologies” meters, but demonstrate virtually no interest in helping when we most need them by investing in emergency planning and preparation and by sharing the technology they have to track outages and repair schedules in real time. This is just not right!

Contrast Edison’s lackluster response to AT&T. I am not a fan of this company–they used to provide our internet service, but no more. Even so, after our power went out, AT&T immediately responded by plugging generators into every internet and phone distribution panel in our neighborhood. Their panels were pre-wired with service plugs for this purpose and I saw at least eight generators at various locations. They were noisy, but they got the job done. My neighbors, lucky enough to have AT&T, had their phone service up in a few hours instead of the days we had to wait. I must admit: The capital outlay and strategic planning for this effort was impressive.

On the other hand, Edison seems to react to every power outage as a BIG SURPRISE! They never tell us what happened or how long it’s going to take to get our power back. Plus, unlike AT&T, we have no alternatives, we can’t “fire” them and get power somewhere else.

My friend Kerri Lewin just Facebooked me with her idea to start an OEI (Occupy Edison International) to show her dislike for the power outage. As long as I don’t have to do any sidewalk camping, count me in!