Edison underground switch failure blamed in Tuesday power outage
Malfunction triggers minor oil leak; leaves 2,145 customers in dark
By Kyle Jorrey kjorrey@theacorn.com

An equipment malfunction at the corner of E. Los Angeles Avenue and Williams Street that resulted in an underground oil leak left a number of Simi Valley businesses and homes without power for almost 15 hours this week, according to Anna Frutos-Sanchez, public affairs regional manager for Southern California Edison Co.

At around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, Frutos-Sanchez said, an Edison operator received a call from the McDonald's at 1495 E. Los Angeles Ave. saying that the power had gone out. Upon investigation, Edison engineers discovered that an oil switch in an underground transformer had unexpectedly failed, causing the device to "spit out" oil, causing contamination above and below ground, she said.

"A cleanup crew contracted by Edison had to be called in, and that's what caused most of the delay. We needed to make sure all the cleanup was done before energy could be restored," Frutos-Sanchez said.

In all, 2,145 Edison customers were affected, many of them businesses located along the busy thoroughfares of Los Angeles Avenue, Cochran Street and Erringer Road.

According to FrutosSanchez, electricity was restored to all Edison customers by 1:50 p.m. Wednesday.

The Edison rep said the malfunction and resulting oil leak was not preventable, and added that not one, but two clean crews worked together through the night and into the morning to make sure all the contamination was removed.

"We always try to maintain our equipment, but you have to be ready for the unexpected," Frutos-Sanchez said.