Getting a Charge From Work : Utilities: When power lines go out in storms, so must repair crews. The work is dangerous, but they say they love the surge of excitement.

To the repair crews who work on snapped power lines that shut down service to thousands of residents and businesses in this winter’s powerful rainstorms, nothing is more thrilling than standing in a bucket and fiddling with 12,000-volt cables while being pelted with sheets of rain.

“The excitement of the emergency makes the workers very alert,” said Ron Ferree, Southern California Edison operations manager for the central Orange County district. “It is very dangerous work. You can get 100-m.p.h. winds, sheets of rain, and trees hitting wires out there, and unbelievably it is seldom that we get an accident.”

That kind of effort in the most adverse conditions is part of the routine for line crews, who filled around-the-clock shifts after last weekend’s storms. By Thursday, overworked Edison crews had wrapped up all storm-related jobs in the county and were back to everyday maintenance and repair work.

There were at least 17 power outages last weekend, darkening about 32,000 homes countywide for up to 5 1/2 hours. Most of those outages were triggered by overhead power lines shorting out or snapping as a result of wind, rain or falling debris.

About half of the 17 outages were just momentary, causing lights to flicker and alarm clocks to reset, according to Steve Sullivan, regional manager for Edison in Orange County. The remaining blackouts required immediate repair, despite the downpour.

Even after the rain had stopped, some problems loomed. As storm runoff sinks into the soil, power in underground lines can be interrupted when the water penetrates the insulation. That is only an occasional problem for electric lines, but is more common with underground phone lines, which are not as well insulated.

Officials from the power companies--three serve the county--describe the repair crews who go out in rainstorms as the company’s elite technicians. They work under dangerous conditions for up to 30 hours at a stretch.

“We spend a lot of time training for safety and strategies,” Sullivan said. “It is not nonchalant. We review procedures before any switch is flipped.”

The common scenarios that crews respond to are power lines damaged by falling tree limbs or high winds rocking wires until they touch and short out. It’s much like what happens in a home when wires get crossed and a small fuse burns out or a circuit breaker trips.

In the typical storm-related outage, industrial-sized circuit breakers, which are spread throughout the system, sense damage and shut down. The circuit breakers act as safety devices and also alert electric crews to the general location of the problem.

An outage in Laguna Niguel on Sunday, which was caused by a falling tree limb, illustrates how the system works:

About noon, the San Diego Gas & Electric Co., which services about 90,000 South County customers, received a number of calls from residents without power. Crews were sent to the area and found a blown fuse on the top of a pole. By 1:30, the crew had followed the lines feeding into the fuse to a tree limb that had fallen.

“Once our trouble guy found a problem, it took only about 10 minutes for him to fix it,” said Fred Vaughn of SDG&E.;

When not out on storm-related problems, crews handle only a smattering of localized outages affecting only a handful of households, usually wires or poles damaged by birds, children or out-of-control motorists. Overhead power lines are common in the county’s older communities, while underground systems are required in communities developed since the 1960s, Vaughn said. Some older communities are converting from overhead to underground networks, but it is a slow and expensive process.

“Ideally, rain won’t bother underground wires,” Ferree said. “They are not that susceptible to rain seepage and shorts, but the protective casing can corrode.”

While underground power lines were generally unaffected by the recent storms, Pacific Bell was scrambling Wednesday to repair thousands of telephone lines damaged by rainwater seeping into the ground.

“That is what is confusing to customers,” said Linda Bonniksen, spokeswoman for Pacific Bell. “It can be sunny outside, but the customer’s phone doesn’t work.”

When the storm hit Sunday, phone crews started repairing overhead lines, but even as those were fixed, seepage began knocking out underground lines. Bonniksen estimated that most of the 3,000 to 4,000 trouble calls throughout Orange and Riverside counties were serviced within hours. However, there are still some places where phones are going dead, she said.

Customers with problems ranging from no service to static-filled connections can call Pac Bell’s 611 repair number.

Bonniksen said the remaining troubles would probably be resolved by today

Both phone and power company emergency crews will likely have a quiet weekend since no rain or gusty winds are forecast, according to Steve Burback of WeatherData Inc., which provides weather information to The Times.

Keeping the Power On Orange County’s older cities, which have above-ground power lines, are more likely to suffer outages during storms than newer cities, which have underground cables. Winds blow tree limbs into wires, causing short circuits, or the wires themselves may blow together. While blackouts occur, the way power is delivered makes it unlikely that many customers will be in the dark for long. 1) The Power Grid: High-voltage lines carry electricity to local substations from generating plants across the West. Transmission towers are rarely damaged by storms. 2) Lighting Up the Town: Local substations transmit lower-voltage electricity along several main distribution lines to about 16,000 homes, on average. 3) Blackout in the Area: Trouble on a main line will disrupt service along its route, but other substation lines keep working. Crews reroute power while making repairs, restoring electricity to nealry all neighborhoods. Mechanical switches allow crews to isolate trouble spots and switch on power to the rest of a zone. 4) Blackout on the Street: Pole transformers lower electricity to household levels of 110 or 220 volts. Problems may make the transformer shut down, which in rare instances may also disrupt the main line. Crews can easily route around the blackout to the 6 to 12 homes that it serves. 5) Looking For Trouble: When an outage occurs, crews drive along main lines, literally looking for problems. Phone reports from customers help them locate trouble spots. Storm Outages: About 32,000 customers in Orange County lost power during last weekend’s storms, most for about 45 minutes, but a few for almost six hours. Some Other Causes of Power Outages Nearly all of Southern California Edison’s power failures are caused by the following: Wind pushes tree limbs into wires, causing a short, or wires themselves are blown together. Cars hit poles, knocking them down or breaking lines.

Birds, Mylar balloons and kites cause short circuits

Rodents chew through underground lines or get in equipment

Contractors accidentally cut lines.

Source: Southern California Edison; San Diego Gas & Electric