Santa Barbara Receives $12 Million in Electric Grid Improvements from SCE

Release Date: April 1,2015

Projects aims to improve reliability over the next two years

Oscar Flores, KEYT-KCOY-KKFX Digital Journalist

Southern California Edison announced Wednesday that it will be making $12 million in grid improvements in downtown Santa Barbara and surrounding areas over the next two years as part of the infrastructure-investment projects that began earlier this year.

“The work we’re doing in Santa Barbara will require coordination between SCE and the residents and businesses it serves,” said Rondi Guthrie, Local Public Affairs region manager for Santa Barbara. “We’re investing more money in the local infrastructure, and we’re working hard to communicate the details of this work to the community."

The improvement projects will replace and improve the distribution equipment in the area, and connect to other circuits on the SCE grid that will make it more flexible for crews to isolate outages when they occur.

SCE said they're aiming at making the grid smarter, including adding remote-controlled switches to quickly restore service in the event of a power outage.

Some work is expected to affect traffic in downtown. "When we are replacing dozens of underground structures or hundreds of distribution poles like we're planning to, not only will folks notice, but they will be affected by lane or road closures, and quite possibly, maintenance outages," said Guthrie.

Details about the improvement work will be available at an SCE open house from 9 a.m. to noon Thursday at the Carrillo Recreation Center at 100 East Carrillo Street.