Critical Sites Require Critical Preparation
As the severity and frequency of wildfires in California increase, the state’s utilities, including Southern California Edison, have implemented Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) outages to reduce the risk of electrical infrastructure igniting a wildfire. PSPS outages are one of our mitigation tools.
PSPS outages are authorized and regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). To reduce the community and safety impacts of a PSPS, the CPUC has identified critical facilities and critical infrastructure as entities "that are essential to the public safety and that require additional assistance and advance planning to ensure resiliency during deenergization events."
Public Safety Partner Portal
Entities designated as critical facilities and critical infrastructure receive priority notice of PSPS outages and may benefit from access to SCE’s secure Public Safety Partner Portal, which includes updated PSPS information. We will work with critical facilities and critical infrastructure entities to help assess their resiliency and access to backup power. Businesses eligible for critical facilities and critical infrastructure designation may request access to the SCE Public Safety Partner Portal.
Backup Generation Assessment
To ensure the continuity of your operations during emergencies and other outages, please consider adding backup generation capacity. Completing the assessment will provide SCE with information needed to work with your business on power needs in the event of an emergency. Please complete the form and an SCE employee or account manager will contact you.
Entities in the following industry sectors are considered “critical facilities and infrastructure” by the CPUC.
Emergency Services
Emergency dispatch centers, police stations, fire stations, emergency operations centers and tribal government emergency services providers.
Government Facilities
Schools, government agencies essential to national defense, jails and prisons, homeless shelters, community centers, senior centers, independent living centers (as defined by the California Department of Rehabilitation), voting centers and vote tabulation facilities.
Healthcare and Public Health
Public health departments, cooling (or warming) centers, temporary facilities established for public health emergencies, medical facilities such as hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, nursing homes, blood banks, healthcare facilities, dialysis centers, and hospice facilities; excluding doctor offices and other nonessential medical facilities.
Energy
Public and private facilities vital to maintaining or restoring normal service, including but not limited to interconnected, publicly owned utilities and electric cooperatives.
Water and Wastewater Systems
Facilities associated with the provision of drinking water or processing of wastewater, including facilities used to pump, divert, transport, store, treat and deliver water or wastewater.
Communications
Communication carrier infrastructure, including selective routers, central offices, headends, cellular switches, remote terminals and cellular sites.
Chemical
Facilities associated with the provision, manufacture, maintenance or distribution of hazardous materials and chemicals, including Category N customers, as defined in CPUC Decision D.01-06-085.
Transportation
Includes facilities associated with automobile, rail, aviation, major public transportation and maritime transportation, serving civilian and military purposes, as well as traffic management and control systems.
Food and Agriculture
Emergency Feeding Organizations, as defined in 7 USC § 7501, and food banks.
Updating Your Contact Information
Log in to the Preference Center in My Account to update your outage contact information to ensure you are notified about any potential PSPS outages and can properly prepare your business. At a minimum, please provide SCE with two people to contact at your business — primary and secondary points of contact. In addition, please include multiple contact methods (e.g., email, phone, text, etc.).
Contact Us
To add your business to our designated roster of critical facilities and critical infrastructure, or if you have other questions, please contact your account manager or send an inquiry to:
Maria Rios
Senior Advisor, Customer Service
SCECSCustomerSupport@sce.com
