What has been the longest significant power outage in Phoenix in summer? (apartments, power lines)

[Steerpike]

Have there been any big-time power outages lasting more than a few hours in Phoenix, in the summer over the past few decades? I was just wondering how bad the heat situation may be in such a situation. Is the power supply considered to be pretty rock-solid here?

[fcorrales80]

Originally Posted by Steerpike

Have there been any big-time power outages lasting more than a few hours in Phoenix, in the summer over the past few decades? I was just wondering how bad the heat situation may be in such a situation. Is the power supply considered to be pretty rock-solid here?

There have been BUT not due to system overload. Usually those blackouts/brownouts are due to summer monsoon storms that cripple power lines by causing huge transformers to blow, catch on fire, or for large scale "snapping" of the lines. There is a thread on the Phoenix forum that shows power lines snapped in half around central Phoenix after a micro-burst from a monsoon storm.

Found that thread: http://www.city-data.com/forum/phoen...rm-damage.html

[wit-nit]

They're relatively short here.
Read this informative site about the subject:
Power Outages in Phoenix - Power Failures in Phoenix - Rolling Blackouts

[fcorrales80]

Originally Posted by nitram

They're relatively short here.
Read this informative site about the subject:
Power Outages in Phoenix - Power Failures in Phoenix - Rolling Blackouts

Yep, from that article:

The summer months bring the most power outages to Phoenix, and are usually caused by wind and lightning. Microbursts can wreak havoc with above ground utilities, especially those wooden power poles.

[observer53]

They are usually not widespread, so they last for different lengths of time depending on what caused them. Those caused by a downed stretch of power lines are some of the longest ones; wildlife causing short circuits at the power stations sometimes cause larger, but not necessarily longer, ones. The longest one I remember at my house was from the power grid domino collapse several years ago... and that was only about 4-5 hours.

[Ponderosa]

I recall at least one being a week or more. It was in the Maryvale area and a monsoon took down blocks of power poles. Typically they last at most a day or two with the majority being a few hours. They have become less common over the years I have lived here as power transmission lines go underground and transformers are ground-based, or wooden poles are replaced with steel as roads are widened and projects go in. We used to always have candles ready as the storms gathered, but are pretty unprepared anymore.

Anyway, you are not going to die without ac unless you have some health issue in which case you can go to one of the shelters they open in extended outage situations.

[pbenjamin]

Willo (or most of it) lost power in the August 2008 storm. We were only out for about 12 hours but most of the neighborhood was out for 3 days or so. This was due to tons of power poles going down in the hood. It was very strange to have power while our next door neighbors and the entire other side of the street had none. I don't think they liked it much. It was reminiscent of the old Monsters are Due on Maple Street episode on Twilight Zone.

[fcorrales80]

Most of the blackout and outages are storm related; if you are looking for information on just random "blackouts" or "brownouts" due to overloading the grid, Phoenix doesn't have those issues like California and much of the East Coast...

[Steerpike]

Originally Posted by fcorrales80

Most of the blackout and outages are storm related; if you are looking for information on just random "blackouts" or "brownouts" due to overloading the grid, Phoenix doesn't have those issues like California and much of the East Coast...

I was really curious about 'any' blackout, regardless of cause - focusing more on the effect it would have on people in the middle of summer, rather than cause.

From what people are saying, the majority of outages are caused by bad weather damaging poles/etc; which sounds like it would take longer to fix due to the need to dispatch crews/etc.

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by Steerpike

I was really curious about 'any' blackout, regardless of cause - focusing more on the effect it would have on people in the middle of summer, rather than cause.

From what people are saying, the majority of outages are caused by bad weather damaging poles/etc; which sounds like it would take longer to fix due to the need to dispatch crews/etc.

We had a power failure at my house a couple years ago in late June. It got up to about 90 in the house, but it was not too bad as that time of year humidity is very low. I had the ac go out once for four days before it got fixed. That was in August. Again, maybe 90 max indoors, but the mugginess made it hard to sleep even with fans. The ac going out in apartments for days seems to be on the news more than extended power failures. You rarely hear of people dying from heat in these parts although it does happen - usually homeless downtown or like those tourists from Alaska that went hiking in the desert last summer. People here are acclimated to the heat and also realize they need to drink a lot of water. Heat doesn't provoke as much stress to people who experience it everyday either, I don't think. That may explain the outcome here and in what happens in heat waves and power outages in cooler areas. I am just amazed at news reports of hundreds of deaths that occur in places like that incident a few years ago in France when temps rose into the 90s.

Whatever the reason, you just don't hear on the news about people keeling over because the ac went off.