The California Public Utilities Commission outlined pole maintenance failures of...
The California Public Utilities Commission outlined pole maintenance failures of phone and cable companies as well as Southern California Edison, a final staff report said (http://xrl.us/boas2q). The PUC’s Safety and Enforcement Division released the document Monday, which covered an investigation…
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into a powerful wind storm that hit California in late 2011 and caused several outages. “Two-hundred forty-eight wood poles and 1,064 overhead conductors were affected,” the division said, saying more than 225,000 people were simultaneously out of power during that time. Although the focus was on the electric utility, the report did identify maintenance failure of the communications infrastructure providers -- a group comprising AT&T, Champion Broadband, Charter Communications, Sunesys, Time Warner Cable, tw telecom and Verizon -- that jointly owned poles in this territory of Southern California Edison. Safety requirements fell short at “at least 211 poles and 17 guy wires” these communications companies oversaw, the report said. The staff recommendations center on South California Edison, not the communications companies, and staff will inform the PUC as it seeks compliance and potentially financial penalties if necessary.