Edison blacks out more customers to stop utility

Southern California Edison cut power to more customers this year than ever before, nearly quadrupling blackouts to prevent fires sparked by utility lines.

The massive outages have caused traffic accidents, disrupted medical care, disabled emergency communications and prompted state regulators to demand improved oversight.

Edison promised that billions spent on infrastructure upgrades would reduce shutoffs, but now predicts a 20% to 40% increase as executives blame below-average rainfall and longer periods of high winds.

Southern California Edison has cut power to hundreds of thousands of its customers this year, more than ever before, as it attempts to stop its electric lines from sparking wildfires.

The utility has told communities in fire-prone areas in recent weeks that they should