Big Bear News – Big Bear Lake, CA – Residents across the Big Bear Valley should prepare for a planned overnight power outage this weekend as Southern California Edison (SCE) conducts scheduled maintenance on transmission lines serving the mountain community.

According to Bear Valley Electric Service (BVES), the planned power outage window will begin at approximately 11:30 p.m. Friday, October 16th, and continue until 7 a.m. Saturday, October 17th, while SCE crews perform maintenance work on the electrical system. However, customers will not experience an outage during that entire window. Full details are below.

On Friday, October 16th, at 11:30 p.m., in preparation for SCE’s shutoff of the main power line feeding Bear Valley, BVES crews will begin shifting local energy loads to alternate power sources, including the BVES power plant, to ensure that they can keep as many homes energized as possible during the outage. Some customers may experience a brief outage during this time.

At 2 a.m., SCE will de-energize the main power lines serving Bear Valley. They expect to be able to power approximately 80% of their customers during this time based on the load switches noted above. The goal is to conduct rolling blackouts for the remaining customers.

Once SCE completes its maintenance, BVES will restore power as soon as they can. During the 30 minutes after SCE restores power, some customers will experience a momentary outage as the grid is shifted to its normal sources.

If the maintenance work extends beyond the scheduled timeframe or if plans change, BVES will provide updates through its Facebook page and website at bvesinc.com.

This round of SCE maintenance is designed to improve the reliability of Big Bear’s main power lines, which are fed from Lucerne and have historically been susceptible to high winds and fire risk. BVES understands the burden these outages have on customers and they’re working to minimize them. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Customers with questions can contact Bear Valley Electric Service at (800) 808-2837.