Frustration in the Trousdale Estates neighborhood is running at an all-time high after residents experienced another power outage on July 4, with a handful of houses going without electricity for over 24 hours.
“We live in Trousdale, which is not an underdeveloped country, but we’re in the dark all the time,” said Karen Platt, co-president of the Trousdale Estates Neighborhood Association.
Disappointment is also felt strongly by members of the City Council who have, for years now, been urging Southern California Edison to get to the bottom of the city’s frequent power outages.
During the Aug. 20 City Council meeting, SCE Government Relations Manager Diane Forte and Metro West Region Engineer Rene Hernandez provided an update on the latest outages as well as infrastructure improvement efforts.
According to Forte, the recent Trousdale power outage was caused by a failed underground cable and impacted around 1,000 SCE customers. The outage started around 7:45 p.m. and was resolved for the majority of customers in about four hours.
Forte also presented data showing that the overall rate of outages in Beverly Hills has declined over the past few years, but the Trousdale Estates neighborhood has seen a spike in incidents in 2024. To the ire of councilmembers, SCE is unsure exactly what is causing this trend.
“The fact that, sadly, they don’t even really know what the issue is or why it’s caused, to me, indicates that there are systemic issues, and they don’t really take this seriously,” said Councilmember John Mirisch.
Mirisch recommended that the city and residents consider entering a class action lawsuit against SCE noting that “‘Groundhog Day’ was a fun movie if you’re a Bill Murray fan, but I’m not sure I enjoy living it.”
City Councilmembers said this is something they would be willing to discuss in a closed session meeting.
Many Trousdale residents attended the meeting to, once again, voice their grievances regarding the outages.
Resident Karen Platt said that when power goes out most residents are unable to report the problem on SCE’s website, because the Wi-Fi also goes out and there is weak cellular connectivity in the neighborhood. Furthermore, she continued, many elderly residents are especially vulnerable as they are unable to leave their homes during outages.
“A lot of those people who live in Trousdale are in their 70s, in their 80s or their 90s,” she said. “They can’t physically go out in front of their house and lift levers to get their gate released so they can get their car out. They can’t lift their garage door open.”
Fellow Neighborhood Association Co-President Shahram Melamed pointed out that the outages are especially dangerous for residents who rely on medical equipment.
“I am one of the people who uses a CPAP because I have sleep apnea and when there’s no electricity, I don’t sleep,” he said.
Melamed also said many residents are at their wits ends after multiple meetings with SCE have failed to yield noticeable improvements.
“They just come here, they give lip service, and we go back and have to deal with all the problems,” he said.
SCE representatives, for their part, said the company was working hard to deliver improvements.
“Outages really are disruptive. I totally understand that. And we have a team together at the highest level of the company to try to figure out what’s going on,” said Forte.
SCE is installing additional fault indicators in Trousdale so they can diagnose issues faster, explained Engineer Rene Hernandez. In addition, they are sectionalizing parts of the electrical circuit to minimize the number of customers impacted by any given outage, he added.
Forte said that it is challenging to perform repairs in the Trousdale neighborhood, because it has a high groundwater level, meaning that water must be drained from underground electrical vaults before maintenance can be completed.
SCE is working with the city to identify areas in the neighborhood where power vaults can be moved above ground, so repairs can be made quicker in the future, she added.
Mayor Lester Friedman asked that SCE return to Council in around 60 days with more answers on why the Trousdale Estates neighborhood experiences such a high frequency of outages.
