Can SCE Shut Off Your Power for Maintenance in Summer Heat? Your Notice Rights and Backup Options

Can SCE Shut Off Your Power for Maintenance in Summer Heat?
Your Notice Rights and Backup Options

Not every outage comes from a wildfire or a storm. Some are scheduled, and they can land in the middle of a desert summer.

What happened in Palm Desert

Hoodline reports that SCE scheduled a planned maintenance outage affecting 878 customers in Palm Desert. It was first set for July 28, then moved to overnight on August 9 to 10, from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., about nine hours. Palm Desert's City Council took up a resolution asking SCE to schedule planned outages outside June through early September when feasible. It stops short of a ban.

What notice SCE owes you

Under SCE's service guarantee policy, the utility must give at least three calendar days' advance notice before a scheduled maintenance outage. If it does not, the company is supposed to issue a $30 bill credit. Hoodline also notes the CPUC fined SCE $7.8 million in February for failing to follow customer notification guidelines during earlier shutoffs in Riverside County.

Why it hurts in the heat

City staff acknowledged that routine planned maintenance is necessary to keep the grid safe and reliable. The problem is timing. Nine hours without air conditioning in triple-digit summer weather is hard on families, and some nearby businesses rented portable generators because they did not realize they would be affected. Planned outages can happen to SCE, SDG&E or PG&E customers, so a plan for your own backup power is worth having.

How third-party ownership (TPO) works

In a TPO program, a company installs, owns and maintains the solar and battery system at your home. You pay for the power it produces without buying, leasing, or financing equipment. Many programs are designed to come in below utility rates, with savings of up to 40% depending on your home and program.

Here is what a TPO solar and battery program can offer:

-Backup power during planned and unplanned outages

-Stored solar to run your cooling overnight

-Less of your power bought at peak-time rates

-Maintenance handled for the term

You cannot pick when the utility does maintenance. You can pick whether your home keeps running through it.

To find out if your home qualifies for a TPO solar and battery program, visit myhomesolution.org

Hoodline, Palm Desert demands fewer summer blackouts after SCE schedules outage for 878 customers (Sep 2026): https://hoodline.com/2026/09/palm-desert-demands-fewer-summer-blackouts-after-sce-schedules-outage-for-878-customers/