So. California Power Cut ON PURPOSE on Thanksgiving Day
- Thread starter redhawker
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Galaxiedan
Blackhawk
As a fellow Florida resident I am happy to say this is the first year I can remember that we only lost power for a few minutes due to storms. 3-4 yrs ago it was a week with no power. Storms weren't worse then.
Joe Chartreuse
Single-Sixer
From Contender's post: "But,, electricity is MUCH more essential to daily life than our lake for sure. And I know the essential places (hospitals etc.) have a back-up system. But I feel in this case,, due to the necessary nature of the needs for electricity should have been a stronger factor in deciding whether or not to cut power."
I fully agree, but would add the following: The grid was completed at a time when there were ONE THIRD of the people that we have today, and ONE FIFTH the power demand due to more power hungry devices. Now they want EVs to draw even more from it. There may be more safety measures, shunts, and jury-rigging in place but it's still not sustainable: My point? Anyone who owns a single family home can afford some sort of generator. Even a $100 1200w generator will run a refrigerator, a gas/ hot water furnace, some lights, and an antennae TV. Apartment dwellers can get full solar power backup for well under a grand.
I'm sorry, but if you aren't homeless and don't have some sort of backup of your own at this point ( except for some extremely rare circumstance) it's pretty much on you for depending on the government to take care of you. They won't.
I fully agree, but would add the following: The grid was completed at a time when there were ONE THIRD of the people that we have today, and ONE FIFTH the power demand due to more power hungry devices. Now they want EVs to draw even more from it. There may be more safety measures, shunts, and jury-rigging in place but it's still not sustainable: My point? Anyone who owns a single family home can afford some sort of generator. Even a $100 1200w generator will run a refrigerator, a gas/ hot water furnace, some lights, and an antennae TV. Apartment dwellers can get full solar power backup for well under a grand.
I'm sorry, but if you aren't homeless and don't have some sort of backup of your own at this point ( except for some extremely rare circumstance) it's pretty much on you for depending on the government to take care of you. They won't.
I'm not depending on the government to take care of me. I do depend on the power company to supply me the power that I pay for.
RSIno1
Hunter
They have changed a few of the rotten poles around us. SoCal Edison is privately owned and answers to it's stock holders. Most of the stuff was put in from the end of WWII to the mid 50s so it's 70 years old now plus it was probably designed for a 50 year life. When I had them for an account in the early 70s they were just getting into contracting out work rather than having a large employee base they could rely in in emergencies. Another problem is when most tracts were built in the 50s and early 60s houses had 125 amp service. With remodels and AC installations many of the homes have been upgraded to 200-250 amp service with no mods to the supply side. This is what causes problems and outages in the heat. Of course the stock holders aren't always right. They approved an inhouse redesign (that GE the original designers said would not work) of the San Onofre reactors using thinner and more tubes to eke a little more power out of it. They failed at a rapid rate and caused internal leakage of the radiated water. Rather than rebuild again they just shut it down and stuck the rate payers with the cleanup bill rather than cutting dividends.
RSIno1
Hunter
Last Summer about 10pm we lost power - it got to over 90 degrees in our bedroom. After waiting a couple hours for it to come back on we retreated to the RV and started the genny and AC. It finally came back on around 7:30am. I figured Edison was swamped and just waited for the day shift to deal with some of the outages the skeleton night crew could not get to.
I bought an 8,000 watt tri fuel (gas/propane/natural gas) generator after than. I still haven't installed a transfer switch to make hookup easy. I have it plumbed to run on natural gas and that should be fine until and earthquake knocks that out then I'll switch to gas since I'll want to save propane for cooking/heat. Ahhhhh....... life in SoCal where waiting for the next disaster is a way of life.
CA homeless have it figured out - generators in LA and solar in the Bay Area. There was a photo a couple weeks ago of a camp with a washing machine. They were stealing the power/water from a building nearby. Some have even cut into the street light poles to tap power.
Attachments
My only thought is if you live in a place where your power might be cut often... why not have a back up plan?
JackBull
Single-Sixer
If the lines are arcing to trees either the right-of-way is not being maintained or the ROW is too narrow. If the conductors are arcing between each other they may not be built to the proper code.
JackBull
Single-Sixer
Great way to support a failed liberal policy.
Joe Chartreuse
Single-Sixer
No reason that you shouldn't get what you pay for. You know, like used cars, Or buying a seat on a plane and then getting bumped due to over-booking. You should,but life does what it does- as does the power company. No one said life is fair.
The only problem with that is there is more than likely some law saying that auxiliary generators cannot be run on fossil fuel or some such nonsense.
Jeepnik
Hawkeye
Hospitals and such have generators. They call them stationary engines. They are highly regulated regarding fuel types and operating hours. I know of several situations where the maximum allowable operating time was less than the required testing time.
This sort of thing happens when multiple regulatory agencies are involved. A good example was a hospital that had a maximum waste water chloride level below that of the incoming domestic water. Two agencies with different concerns operating on incompatible standards.
This sort of thing happens when multiple regulatory agencies are involved. A good example was a hospital that had a maximum waste water chloride level below that of the incoming domestic water. Two agencies with different concerns operating on incompatible standards.
This is a pic of a pole visible out my front window. My power comes from this pole. You can see the white things in the pic. These are the knife switches that they can use to cut power. There are 4 of them on this pole. The new pole is also made of fiberglass. They can cut power to the next poles up the line or to the residential power coming off that pole. The lines you see are actually white colored lines. They are insulated. They renewed those lines in the whole area up here. One can't say that SCE isn't trying. The cross beams are also metal.
