NEW SEASON, SAME OUTAGES

Published in the May 23, 2026 issue.

The prickled residents of the Birchim circuit cannot expect a summer free from the now familiar cycle of outages and shutoffs, Southern California Edison officials warned during a public meeting in Bishop last Thursday evening.

“The outages are happening,” said Edison Government Relations Manager Matthew Paruolo.

The 62-mile Birchim circuit serves Paradise Valley, Swall Meadows, Round Valley, West Bishop and Mustang Mesa and has become one of Edison’s worst-performing lines by the utility’s own admission.

Residents arrived at the meeting frustrated after enduring what several described as near constant interruptions to daily life. One attendee said the circuit had already experienced nine shutoffs this month alone.

“People couldn’t attend this meeting tonight because we had one today,” one Rovana resident said.

Edison officials said some relief could be coming, eventually.

Paruolo said the aggressive maintenance and rewiring work currently underway on the Birchim circuit is expected to wrap up this fall. The upgrades are supposed to allow the line to withstand stronger wind events before Edison has to trigger a Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS).

“We are in a much better place than last year,” Damian Provencio, Bishop/Mammoth District Manager assured the crowd.

Still, the utility officials made clear that no amount of infrastructure work would eliminate outages entirely.

“We will never stop maintaining the grid,” Paruolo said. “Outages of some form will always come.”

A significant point of confusion throughout the meeting centered on the difference between planned maintenance outages and PSPS events. 

Jude Schneider, Edison’s Emergency Management External Affairs Lead, said many residents are mistaking routine or wind-related outages for PSPS shutoffs.

She said only PSPS events require formal notification protocols, while maintenance and weather-related outages follow separate processes, which contributes to the perception that all shutoffs are the same.

Paruolo repeatedly urged residents to update their outage notification settings through Edison’s MySCE app and website and to enroll in address-specific PSPS alerts through the utility’s outage portal.

The utility said much of the disruption right now is tied to the massive amount of work happening on the circuit, including installation of insulated covered conductor wire meant to better withstand wind and vegetation.

But some of the shutoffs are simply weather-triggered.

Edison has installed more than 100 weather stations throughout its Bishop-Mammoth district, allowing the company to more precisely monitor wind conditions and reduce the scope of shutoffs where possible.

Shutoffs are not based solely on weather in one community. Wind and fire danger anywhere along the line can force Edison to cut power, especially near substations or heavily vegetated areas.

“That’s how localized they are,” Schneider said.

Restoration, she added, can take time even after winds die down. Crews often have to patrol long stretches of line on foot or by vehicle to check for downed lines, damaged equipment or vegetation contact before power can safely be turned back on. 

In some cases, Edison uses helicopters to inspect remote or hard-to-access sections of the circuit, particularly after high wind events. The utility is looking to employ more drones to assess situations better, but that takes significant training.

Residents also pressed officials on whether crews could simply “test volt” sections of the line to bring power back sooner, as one attendee suggested.

David Elias, Regional Construction Senior Manager, explained that even partial energization carries safety risks if hidden damage, vegetation contact or equipment failure has not been fully ruled out.

“If it fails, we’d have a fire,” Schneider added.

Residents questioned why Edison could not pursue larger fixes altogether, like splitting the circuit or building additional substations.

To this, the utility mostly bemoaned cost and regulation.

“If we were building the electric grid today, it would not necessarily be the grid we have,” Schneider said.

That explanation did not exactly calm the room.

“You’re an $81 billion corporation,” one resident shot back.