3 Cities Cast a Wary Eye at Cable Firm’s Generators

South Orange County cities have discovered that the new, high-tech services being offered by their local cable company come with a controversial and sometimes noisy side effect: big, gas-powered generators in neighborhoods.

Cox Communications Inc. is installing the emergency backup generators to keep its cable television, high-speed Internet and telephone services online if a power outage strikes.

City officials in Lake Forest, San Clemente and Dana Point have postponed installation, however, because of concerns over the noise and possible hazards the generators may create.

Communities throughout Southern California and the nation may face the same controversy as more and more cable companies tap into the lucrative Internet and telephone markets, in which a reliable power source is considered essential.

“Safety, noise and aesthetics are our biggest issues,” said Bob Goldin, the Lake Forest community development planner. “We worried that as soon as they put one of those in, we’d start to hear about it.”

The Lake Forest City Council passed an ordinance in January restricting the size, location and noise of the generators, which are powered by natural gas and housed in desk-sized metal boxes.

Cox has installed 40 generators in Laguna Niguel, and dozens more have been set up in Rancho Santa Margarita, Laguna Hills and South County’s canyon communities. So far, the firm has not received any complaints from residents, said Leo Brennan, Cox’s general manager in Orange County.

Cox invested millions of dollars in its new South County cable network so it could provide subscribers with the new services. Because the cable system is used for everything from business transactions on the Internet to emergency 911 calls, the uninterrupted power source is critical, Brennan said.

The biggest complaints raised have been over the appearance of the generators, which are placed mostly along streets in city rights of way, Brennan said. The generators can be up to 13 feet long.

Brennan said most homeowners won’t even notice they’re there. The generators are insulated to muffle noise, and kick on only during a power outage or when short tests are conducted every few weeks. Cox also tries to place the generators on thoroughfares, away from homes, or behind walls and berms.

“The cities have shared concerns that I wouldn’t say are unwarranted,” Brennan said. “But noise has not been a problem.”

He said the generators are equipped with emergency shut-off valves that cut the natural gas supply if an earthquake strikes.

Those precautions haven’t erased concerns in Dana Point, which stopped Cox when the company began installing a generator on Camino Capistrano close to homes.

The city is not convinced the unattended generators won’t pose a safety hazard, even with shut-off valves, said Bob Warren, director of Dana Point’s public works department.

“It’s natural gas-powered. My concern is, if a car wipes one out, a fire or explosion may follow.”

Despite Cox’s assurances, Warren also believes generator noise will disturb homeowners. The devices can be as loud as lawn mowers, Warren and officials from other cities said.

“In the middle of the night, when there’s no other noise, it will be heard, and there could be a problem,” Warren said.

More and more of the generators will be popping up in neighborhoods now that cable companies are starting to use their networks to offer telephone and computer services, said Jonathan Kramer, an Encino-based cable consultant whose client list includes Orange County and the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Pacific Bell and other traditional telephone companies don’t need neighborhood generators because they have backup power supplies at their central offices, Kramer said. They can transmit that power over their network of copper telephone lines, which run directly into homes and businesses, to help operate phones and other communications equipment.

Cable television companies have a coaxial cable running into homes that can also carry power. But the new cable networks being installed also include fiber optic lines, which can’t transmit power and thus make a centralized backup power supply impossible, Kramer said. So cable companies must install generators in every community.

Most cable firms currently deploy backup battery-power sources in neighborhoods to protect their networks from power outages. Kramer said those battery sources can provide power for hours, and some cable companies say they are all that’s needed even with modern systems that offer telephone and Internet service.

Cox and other cable companies have chosen to install the natural gas-powered generators because they have a continuous supply of fuel and can run indefinitely.

“For most people, if they lose their TV service for a few hours, it’s not a major problem,” Kramer said. “As cable operators start to become telephone operators, they’ve found people’s expectations of reliability increase dramatically.”