Public Safety Power Shutoffs
When the wind comes up, Edison turns the power off. Your house stays on.
In high fire risk areas, Southern California Edison switches its own lines off on purpose when strong, dry wind makes them a fire risk. A shutoff can run a day or several. County Line Electric installs Generac standby generators that start on their own within seconds and carry the house until Edison turns the lines back on: the lights, the internet, the refrigerator, the well and the gate.
How a shutoff works
A shutoff is a decision, not an accident.
A Public Safety Power Shutoff, PSPS for short, starts with a forecast. When strong wind, low humidity and dry brush line up over a high fire risk area, Southern California Edison can de-energize the circuits that run through it, because a line damaged by the wind can start a fire. It is a sound reason to turn the power off. It also means the outage reaches thousands of homes at once, on purpose, and lasts as long as the danger does.
Edison begins notifying customers on the affected circuits up to three days ahead when the forecast allows, and updates them while the wind blows. The power does not come back the minute the wind drops: every de-energized circuit has to be visually inspected by crews before it is switched back on. And a shutoff event can be enormous. Edison's report to the state on its January 2025 event: it ran from January 2 to January 17 and de-energized 363,196 customers across eight counties, the largest in the history of its program.
What a shutoff switches off
The lights are the least of it.
Water
A house on a well, or on a booster pump up a hillside, has no water pressure without power: no showers, no flushing, no garden hose.
The gate and the garage
Motorized gates and garage doors need power or a manual release, and in an evacuation the car has to get out. California has required battery backup on newly installed garage door openers since 2019.
Refrigerator and freezer
Federal food safety guidance: a closed refrigerator keeps food safe for about four hours, a full freezer about 48. A shutoff can outlast both.
Internet and phones
The modem, the router and any home phone that runs over internet service stop with the house, at the moment the shutoff updates matter most.
Heat and air conditioning
Central air stops. So does a gas furnace, because its blower, igniter and controls run on electricity.
Medical equipment
Oxygen concentrators, CPAP machines, powered beds and medication that has to stay cold. Edison runs a Medical Baseline program for customers who depend on powered equipment.
Why not a portable generator
A portable generator is a chore at the worst possible time.
A portable generator has to be wheeled out, filled with gasoline every few hours and started by hand, so someone has to be home and the gas cans have to be full in the middle of a fire weather event. It runs what its extension cords reach: a refrigerator and a lamp, not the well pump, the furnace or the central air, which are wired into the house.
It is also a hazard. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission says nearly 100 people a year die in the U.S. from carbon monoxide from portable generators, and that one must never run inside a home, garage, basement or other enclosed space. Edison warns that plugging one into a wall outlet or wiring it into the panel can backfeed the utility lines and electrocute a neighbor or a line worker. A standby generator answers all of that by design: it sits outside on a pad with Generac's required clearances, runs on the gas line or a propane tank, and connects to the house only through an automatic transfer switch.
The first minute of a shutoff
What happens when Edison switches the circuit off.
- 01
The line goes dead
Edison de-energizes the circuit. To the house it is an outage like any other.
- 02
The transfer switch notices
The automatic transfer switch watches the utility voltage. When it drops and stays down for a few seconds, it signals the generator.
- 03
The generator starts
The engine starts on its own and comes up to speed. Nobody has to be home.
- 04
The house moves over
The switch disconnects the house from the utility lines and connects it to the generator. The lights, the well and the refrigerator are back within seconds.
- 05
You get the notice
Generac's Mobile Link app reports that the unit is running, so you and the County Line office both know.
- 06
Edison restores the line
When utility power returns and holds steady, the switch hands the house back, and the generator cools down and stops.
Sizing for days
A shutoff is measured in days. So is the generator.
A generator sized for a two-hour outage is not the one for a three-day shutoff in hot weather. County Line sizes from a load calculation of what has to run at the same moment, then checks the fuel: on natural gas, that the meter and the line can carry the generator and the furnace together; on propane, that the tank holds enough for days at your load, and that the supplier can reach it when the canyon roads are busy.
For most houses, an air-cooled Generac carries everything through a shutoff. Estates with several air conditioning systems, a pool and pumps move to a liquid-cooled unit built for long runs at high load. Houses that should not go dark even for the seconds the switch takes, or that want solar and a battery in the plan, belong on the residential microgrid pages.
Before the next wind event
Standby generator checklist before an Edison wind shutoff.
If you already own a standby generator, these six checks keep it ready for the next Public Safety Power Shutoff.
- Service: oil, filters, battery and a load test. County Line's twice-yearly service is $600 a year for both visits, on units it installed and units other contractors installed.
- Fuel: the propane tank level, and whether it lasts several days at your load. On natural gas there is nothing to fill.
- The weekly exercise: confirm in the Mobile Link app that it ran and that there are no faults.
- The transfer switch: a simulated outage, with the circuits that matter checked one by one.
- The manual releases on the gate and the garage door, and everyone in the house knowing where they are.
- Edison's alerts: a current phone number and email on the Edison account, so the shutoff notices reach you.
In your area
How often the power goes out where you live.
County Line's Power Outage Board shows, town by town, how long the average Edison customer went without power in 2025, how many outages and what caused them, from Edison's own reliability reports, plus every wind shutoff Edison has filed with the state since. Edison's PSPS pages are the authority on which circuits are under watch and include an address lookup.
County Line Electric at a glance
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Shutoff questions
How long does an Edison Public Safety Power Shutoff last?
As long as the dangerous weather lasts, plus the time it takes crews to visually inspect every de-energized circuit before switching it back on. Edison's January 2025 shutoff event ran from January 2 to January 17. A standby generator on natural gas runs for the whole of it; on propane, for as long as the tank is sized for.
Will I get a warning before a shutoff?
Edison begins sending notices up to three days ahead to customers on the circuits it expects to shut off, and updates during the event. Edison also says there may be little to no notice before a shutoff. That is the case for a generator that starts on its own.
Does a standby generator work during a PSPS?
Yes. To the automatic transfer switch, a shutoff is an outage like any other: utility power drops, the generator starts, the house moves over, and the switch hands the house back when Edison restores the line.
Is my house in a shutoff area?
Edison publishes its high fire risk areas and the circuits under watch on its PSPS pages, with an address lookup, and that is the authority for any one house. County Line's Power Outage Board shows how often each place in its service area actually loses power, and why.
Is it safe to have a generator in a high fire risk area?
A permanently installed standby generator sits on a pad with Generac's required clearances, connects to a fixed fuel supply and is inspected by the building department. There is no gasoline to carry and no cord to run. Keep the area around it clear of brush, the same as the rest of the defensible space around the house.
What does a generator for shutoffs cost?
It depends on the unit, the fuel, the transfer switch and the distance from the panel to the pad, so County Line writes the estimate after a site visit and a load calculation rather than quoting a price on a page. The twice-yearly service plan is $600 a year, both visits.
Standby power
Keep reading.
Official references
Where the facts on this page come from.
County Line links to the authorities rather than restating them. Rules change; these pages are current.
- Southern California Edison: Public Safety Power Shutoffs: how and when Edison turns the power off in wind events, with an address lookup
- California Public Utilities Commission: PSPS: the rules the utilities follow
- U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission: generator carbon monoxide warning: nearly 100 deaths a year
- Edison: generator safety: backfeed and the transfer switch
- Edison report to the CPUC on the January 2025 shutoffs (PDF): 363,196 customers, January 2 to 17
- FoodSafety.gov: food safety during a power outage: four hours in the refrigerator, about 48 in a full freezer
- California SB 969, state housing bulletin (PDF): battery backup on garage door openers since July 1, 2019
- Edison Medical Baseline program: for customers who depend on powered medical equipment
- Generac: the equipment County Line installs
- CSLB license check: license #949580
Next step
A standby generator before the next Edison wind shutoff.
County Line Electric installs Generac standby generators for wind shutoffs across Ventura, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara counties. Send your name, phone, city and what you want to keep running; County Line visits the site, runs the load calculation and writes the estimate.
Or call (805) 499-0823. Monday to Friday, 9 to 5.