Did you know that our grid serves more than 15 million people across our 50,000 square-mile area? To improve power reliability for today and for many years to come, we are strengthening our electricity distribution grid. The multiyear, multibillion-dollar investment plan includes upgrades to make power more dependable and safer along with new technologies that enable us to integrate more clean energy.
We understand that our improvement activities may be an inconvenience, and we thank you for your patience while we are at work in your community.
You may have seen crews in your neighborhood lately. As part of our commitment to delivering reliable electric service today and well into the future, we’re upgrading and maintaining infrastructure. This includes electrical poles, wires, equipment and underground facilities.
In some cases, heavy equipment such as cranes may be used and there may be noise associated with construction activities.
Sometimes crews may need to enter your property to do the job. It may be inspecting, repairing or replacing poles, other electrical equipment or it could be trimming/removing trees or shrubs for everyone’s safety. We will attempt to notify you before entering your property.
Here are tips to keep in mind when crews need to work on your property:
In some situations, work may result in street lane closures, parking restrictions and sidewalk closures. To ensure vehicle and pedestrian safety, our crews and contractors will use traffic control signs and crew members with flags.
We understand that maintenance outages are an inconvenience to you. To protect the safety of our crews, it may be necessary to temporarily turn off the power for repairs or upgrades. We take every precaution to reduce the inconvenience, such as carefully isolating the outage to the smallest possible area and completing the work as quickly as we safely can.
We will notify you in advance of a maintenance outage.
Learn more at our Outage Center >
Find outage by ZIP code or “planned/maintenance outage number” >
Occasionally, an SCE employee or contractor may come to your door regarding construction activities or to leave a door hanger or letter. Most, but not all, of our employees will be wearing uniforms with an employee identification card. Our authorized contractors will have at least one of the following items for identification: a badge, hard hat, uniform and vehicle.
SCE is regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). The CPUC regulates the design, location and maintenance responsibilities of utilities as it relates to our infrastructure.
SCE maintains franchise agreements with cities and counties across its service area, which gives SCE the right to construct and utilize our facilities “in the public streets, alleys, ways and places” within the local jurisdiction.
The California Public Utilities Commission's (CPUC) Rule 20 sets policies and procedures for the conversion of overhead power lines and other equipment to underground facilities, a process called "undergrounding." Rule 20 determines the level of ratepayer funding for different undergrounding arrangements.
Rule 20C enables property owners to pay for undergrounding electric lines and equipment if neither Rule 20A nor 20B applies. Local governments can contact their SCE region manager or Rule 20 project manager.
Vegetation such as trees and shrubs can pose serious safety hazards and lead to power outages if they grow too close to power lines. To ensure public safety, SCE conducts inspections and takes necessary steps to trim or remove vegetation near power lines.
We track and monitor outages across our service territory and measure our “system reliability” from this data.
We’re building a smarter grid to make power more dependable, safer and cleaner.
You may be surprised at the complex role each distribution pole plays in the electric system.
This video offers a look into the steps we take to repair damage and restore power to communities and homes.