PB Power Outages (Pittsburgh, Economy, Duquesne: apartment, houses, live in)

[Fran66]

I am a potential (and older, retired) transplant. A few days ago I called a couple of apt complexes/buildings, and asked how many power outages PB has had in the past year. Just a general idea, not wanting the exact number of times and the dates. And both young women who answered the phones said that there had been no power outages in the past year -- or more.

I thought that PB had at least a couple of power outages (lasting for days) last winter and earlier this summer. Am I wrong? Certainly hope I'm wrong.

Fran

[Burghgirl17]

What is "PB"???

[Tinare]

Peanut butter power outages?

(Just kidding, but I stared at that for a long time trying to figure out what you meant by PB...)

There have been no total city-wide power outages ever that I can remember. Power outages from storms tend to be spotty, and may impact certain areas for extended periods of time, but it's likely that the areas you called experienced none since that was what you were told. I personally haven't lost power at my house in at least two years. And that only lasted a couple of hours following a sudden and severe storm that also toppled a neighbor's tree. I've never personally, in at least the past twenty years, lost power for days.

[Tinare]

Originally Posted by Burghgirl17

What is "PB"???

I think that's how they are abbreviating Pittsburgh.

[Burghgirl17]

Originally Posted by Tinare

I think that's how they are abbreviating Pittsburgh.

First thing I thought of was Pottery Barn (your peanut butter is a good one, too).

If the OP is just asking generally about power outages, they are rare and usually due to a major weather related event. Technology with power distribution nowadays really cuts down on outages because they can reroute the distribution differently throughout the circuit to isolate the smallest possible amount of customers.

[greg42]

Power outages are far more localized than a whole city or metro, or at least they are around here. It seems to be very reliable generally, although I would be there are some localized pockets of repeated problems so you'd have to get very specific about areas before you would gain any useful info.

I live practically out in the sticks and my power (Duquesne Light territory in Beaver County) is pretty dead reliable. Outages are measured in minutes when I've witnessed them, and add them up for a year or three and it would still only be minutes (i.e. short of a full hour of outage even when measured over a few years). Sometimes outages happen when I'm not home so maybe it's a little longer (no way of telling how long those are) but nothing that is inconveniencing.

So major regional power outages lasting for days? Definitely wrong. I don't recall any either. In a few isolated spots could there have been some people without power for days? Sure, it happens, depending upon trees, what actually has broken, etc. In Cranberry Township they had a wide blackout that might have lasted about a day when someone stole the live wires from a substation! But while it affected almost everything in that vicinity, that vicinity is still relatively small in the grand scheme of the entire Pittsburgh area. I personally live 5 miles from the middle of Cranberry and only a couple miles from the edge of it, and I was not affected one bit from that event.

Depending upon where the apartment buildings are, there's a decent chance they haven't had an unplanned outage in years.

[Fran66]

Thank you all very much for the info.

[Kippy]

My experience has been different. I have never experienced so many outages or outages of substantial duration until moving to the Pittsburgh area. I have lived in areas that have much heavier snowfall and in areas with much bigger thunderstorms on a regular basis; however, it seems every time we get a big storm, especially in fall and winter, the power goes out. I have experienced everything from just a flicker to a nearly forty-eight hour outage.

I do live out in the exurbs, and I would hazard a guess that in the city proper, you would not have the same frequency of service interruptions.

[greg42]

Originally Posted by Kippy

My experience has been different. I have never experienced so many outages or outages of substantial duration until moving to the Pittsburgh area. I have lived in areas that have much heavier snowfall and in areas with much bigger thunderstorms on a regular basis; however, it seems every time we get a big storm, especially in fall and winter, the power goes out. I have experienced everything from just a flicker to a nearly forty-eight hour outage.

This is what I mean. Our two extremes taken as "the Pittsburgh area" mean absolutely nothing. But if I say I live in Economy Borough in Beaver County, then you have an idea of the general reliability in that vicinity. But that still isn't to say that 10 houses on a dead end street somewhere near me couldn't have problems even while mine is fine. There are pockets of that everywhere.

But there's definitely no instance of a wide-area multi-day outage that I can think of here.

[Pitt Chick]

Originally Posted by Tinare

Peanut butter power outages?

(Just kidding, but I stared at that for a long time trying to figure out what you meant by PB...)

As did I... and came to the same conclusion you did!