Utility workers to restore power to SoCal customers amid heat wave

Utility workers have been working around the clock this weekend to restore power amid a long and blistering heat wave, with thousands of outages being reported around Southern California.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power was still reporting dozens of outages Sunday evening. The utility said the outage was affecting 15,208 customers of their 1.5 million electric customers.

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Harvard Park, Hollywood and Northridge were among the communities with the most customers impacted Sunday night, the LADWP stated.

The LADWP announced that customers experiencing an outage could expect that a crew response might extend beyond 24 hours due to the high number of smaller outages.

According to the LADWP, at 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Distributing Station 27, which serves electricity to parts of the Watts and Green Meadows communities, became overloaded due to high demand impacted further by the extreme heat.

To prevent a complete area outage, the department began 30- and 60- minute rotating outages in parts of the neighborhood.

LADWP customers can check the locations and status of outages at ladwp.com/outages, and SCE customers can get updates at sce.com/outage- center/check-outage-status.

Los Angeles officials were urging DWP customers to report power outages to 800-DIAL DWP (800-342-5397) or ladwp.com/outages immediately. The DWP uses the real-time information to deploy crews to restore electricity as quickly as possible.

SCE customers can report an outage at sce.com/outage-center/report-an- outage.

Residents were also urged to conserve power during the peak afternoon and early evening hours to avoid blackouts.

"Stay safe and cool by adjusting your thermostats to 78," the DWP advised. "If you're away from your home, turn your AC systems off."

The utility also recommends using major appliances such as washing machines, vacuum cleaners, and dishwashers before 4 p.m. or after 9 p.m., or not at all if possible until the heat waves passes.

Sunday night's concert was canceled due to a power outage at the Hollywood Bowl, officials announced on social media.

Vance Joy, Grouplove and Tiny Habits were scheduled to perform Sunday night, according to the Hollywood Bowl's calendar.

"If a new date for this performance can be confirmed, details will follow and tickets for the original date will be valid for the new performance date," said Hollywood Bowl officials.

"We have crews actively working within the distributing station to reduce equipment temperature and prevent permanent equipment damage. We apologize for the inconvenience as we work to restore service to normal and prevent future outages," the LADWP stated.

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