Submitted by Mike Machado

Power outages are no real surprise, but this one seems to have opened a hornet’s nest of anger, anxiety, and frustration among Anza Valley Electric Members. The event was announced to Anza Electric Members on the 11^th of December as a public service notice of high winds and low humidity that might require an intentional interruption of electric energy under the State of California mandate out of an abundance of caution to prevent Wild Land Fires caused by electric utility wires and infrastructure. Turning off the power has happened before and has become standard practice in high-fire areas by Electrical Utility companies for a variety of reasons and circumstances. Whether or not it has any real merit or any showing that the practice has stopped any fires is unknown as there has not been any investigation by anyone at all justifying the practice.

What is known is that PG&E, and Edison have been blamed for several fires in California allegedly due to faulty and poorly maintained electrical infrastructure during high wind events. So, you could say the sins of a few are now the burden of us all.

 The outage might very well have been for the best of intentions, but in this case, there seems to be cause for concern that Anza Members were treated differently than the surrounding communities with similar Red Flag and high fire danger. And while Anza Electric promised updates through the event many Members never got any. The power was interrupted for about 31 hours, while the wind speed according to the National Weather Service had declined at around 10 pm on Tuesday the 13^th.

Who ordered the power interruption? It is alleged that the order came from Edison Officials who may have been acting on information from The National Weather Service, predictions rather than their own wind speed and weather monitors for Rural Communities. Anza Electric has similar capability for its service territory which spans nearly 550 square miles. High winds and low humidity are critical when determining the threat of wildland or forest fire, so given the territory that Anza Electric serves it is quite possible to have higher winds in one area and lower winds in another. But Anza Electric was not responsible for the interruption, California Edison was or so that is what was disseminated to the membership.

Edison provides power to the surrounding areas outside Anza Electric's territory. So does San Diego Gas and Electric. It is alleged by more than a few that Idyllwild, Sage, Aguanga, the rural parts of Hemet, and the 79 corridors east to Warner Springs did not have their power interrupted even though the threat of fire is much

greater in many of these communities than it is in Anza Electrics service territory. This certainly deserves an explanation, you would think.

Arizona Electric Power Cooperative is responsible for providing Anza Electric with electric energy and transmission. To make this happen, there are contracts in place that require California Edison to deliver energy through its transmission network to Ana Electrics transmission connection at Mountain Center, CA. This is why Edison is a key player in keeping the lights on.

The grid as it is called is a series of transmission circuits and substations, the Nelson substation near Hemet is where two distribution circuits (transmission circuits for Anza and Idyllwild) begin that affect the mountain communities. One feeds Idyllwild and the other feeds the Anza Electrics Transmission switch at Mountain Center. These two lines belong to Edison and are the ONLY lines in existence to serve Idyllwild and Anza Electric. When I say only, I mean there is no other means currently in existence to provide baseline electric energy to the community of Anza. This single set of wires travels through Hemet, then enters the wilderness at Cranston on the Highway 74 corridor then 17 miles up through National Forest land with heavy timber and topography that is steep and unforgiving to a set of switches in Mountain Center, then terminates onto Anza Electrics transmission lines. That is as far as Edison goes.  From there Anza Electric transmission travels another 21 miles through the wilderness and the San Bernadino National Forest to a substation behind Anza Electric's main office.

When this single line goes down for whatever reason 550 square miles goes dark instantly. It can be interrupted intentionally by California Edison at the Nelson Substation and various other points, or by Anza Electric at its switch in Mountain Center, or by Arizona Electric at the same switch. This single transmission line of a combined 38 miles located in heavy vegetation and timber may be the reason power to Anza Electric members was interrupted while others were not.

So how vulnerable is this single source of electric energy? It was originally built in the early 1950s by Anza citizens as volunteers to bring electricity to the valley, and those folks must have felt pretty good about the job they had done as no one ever considered turning off the power intentionally until around 2015. In 70 years, there has never been a recorded incident of this transmission line having ever started a fire. The largest wind event ever recorded occurred in 1996 with sustained winds at 60mph and gusts to 89 mph. Still, the power stayed on. Was it luck?  Wildland fire has always been a concern to the