SCE power lines threatened by California fires

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The wildfires near Santa Barbara, California, continued on Thursday to be a threat to 220-kilovolt transmission lines owned by Southern California Edison after causing about 100,000 customers to lose power on Wednesday night, SCE and the California Independent System Operator said.

The customers were brought back on-line late Wednesday night.

On Wednesday around 7:15 p.m. PDT, SCE de-energized the 220-kilovolt line near Goleta, which is near Santa Barbara, due to smoke and ash near the lines, said Stephanie McCorkle of the Cal ISO, which operates the state power grid for the utilities like SCE that own the lines.

Jane Brown of SCE said the utility will keep watch on the fire that is burning in the area.

"It's still a possibility that the transmission lines can be impacted again, so we are urging people to prepare for that," Brown said.

SCE is asking that if the line does go out again, the customers who continue to have power conserve because the ability to serve customers with fewer lines is often diminished.

California firefighters are battling many blazes this week. This one is called the Gap Fire, and it has burned about 2,400 acres. It is not as large as the fire that has caused evacuations in the Big Sur area of central California, which is called the Basin Complex fire. That larger fire has charred more than 64,000 acres

(Reporting by Bernie Woodall; Editing by Christian Wiessner)