Power outages (Phoenix, Fountain Hills: hotels, taxi, live in)

[wit-nit]

Major outages in the valley usually occur during the 'monsoon' season. Other times outages are caused by someone hitting a utility pole and that only effects that local area.

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by twiggy

This is for Surprise AZ ( about 30 min. from Phoenix downtown. It's the same for most cities in and around Phx. These are tips for help in blackouts from monsoons or rollingblackouts caused purposely by the electric company when demand can exceed supply. Which we do have here in Arizona! While we have plenty of stations here, a lot of the power they generate goes to other states. It's not that bad though, just part of this heat I guess. They usually only last about an hour or two and exclude Hospitals and large commercial buildings. Hope this helps!Official Website - Surprise, Arizona (http://www.surpriseaz.com/index.asp?NID=429#RollingBlackouts - broken link)

Balonley!!! I have lived here for 35 years and have NEVER heard of a rolling blackout affecting residential users owing to excessive demand. Maybe you can provide an example. Some industrial users accept cutbacks in service in return for lower rates -that is not the same thing.

[sheena]

Originally Posted by twiggy

I have only experienced 4 outages in the last 12 yrs. 3 due to storms, one a car ran into something like a transformer. I live in Chandler. My Mother gets more, she lives in North Phx. The storms seem to hit harder out there and in Mesa. Not enough to worry about.

My mother lives in Mesa off of Val Vista and University, everytime she gets a storm she loses power. I lived in Gilbert off of Power and Guadalupe all we ever got was a tail or a brushing of a storm ans she always got the worst of it and we were only about 6 miles apart. We've never lost power in that house. Glendale was a whoe different story

[sheena]

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

Balonley!!! I have lived here for 35 years and have NEVER heard of a rolling blackout affecting residential users owing to excessive demand. Maybe you can provide an example. Some industrial users accept cutbacks in service in return for lower rates -that is not the same thing.

Didn't some areas have a rolling black out a few years ago. I remember some about that. I think it was one season.

[sheena]

Originally Posted by Magnum Mike

There are two utility companies in Arizona, Salt River Project and Arizona Public Service. For some reason, power outages, although rare, seem to occur more often with APS customers. I'm with SRP and the only time power outages occur, as twiggy mentioned, is when somebody runs into a transformer or when lightning hits them, or exposed power lines.

Also, all newer areas have utility lines burried underground, so you won't see those old ugly power lines and wooden poles.

City of Mesa has an electric company also.

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by sheena

Didn't some areas have a rolling black out a few years ago. I remember some about that. I think it was one season.

There was a case where a substation transformer went out and there was a threat of rolling blackouts. They were on the radio asking people to cut back, conserve etc and to my recollection, the blackouts were never needed. I remember they had to bring some huge piece of equipment from California or somewhere. Maybe that is what you are thinking of. But, as a rule, a very good rule, the utilities here have done a good job of keeping up with exploding demand.

Also, in the late 1980/early 90s, there were a lot of concerns about power problems. Houses built then in APS areas had to have demand controllers on them.

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by Magnum Mike

There are two utility companies in Arizona, Salt River Project and Arizona Public Service. For some reason, power outages, although rare, seem to occur more often with APS customers. I'm with SRP and the only time power outages occur, as twiggy mentioned, is when somebody runs into a transformer or when lightning hits them, or exposed power lines.

Also, all newer areas have utility lines burried underground, so you won't see those old ugly power lines and wooden poles.

You mean in Phoenix? Because there are many utilities in Arizona. There's TRICO and Tucson Electric too, and about a dozen coops like Sulphur Springs in the Sierra Vista area.

[Ponderosa]

That's the event I was talking about where the sub-station was knocked out. It was a couple years ago.

EDIT: I checked. The fire was on July 4, 2004.

[twiggy]

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

Balonley!!! I have lived here for 35 years and have NEVER heard of a rolling blackout affecting residential users owing to excessive demand. Maybe you can provide an example. Some industrial users accept cutbacks in service in return for lower rates -that is not the same thing.

A sample from the Surprise website I used in the post your responding to! Maybe SRP is full of "Baloney".
Source: Salt River Project

ROLLING BLACKOUTS

The Valley can be susceptible to shortages of electricity during the summer months when demand can exceed supply. A Rolling Blackout occurs when a power company turns off electricity to selected areas to save power. The areas are selected using sophisticated computer programs and models.

The blackouts are typically for one hour, then the power is restored and another area is turned off. Hospitals, airport control towers, police stations, and fire departments are often exempt from these rolling blackouts.

These blackouts usually occur during peak energy usage times, but they can happen at any time of day. Blackouts may affect the same area more than once a day, and may exceed an hour’s duration.

This info is on almost every cities website, even on Wickenburgs!
Wickenburg AZ - Official Website-read it this time, I know you have a computer, and why so hostle, aren't you a moderator?
It's no secret and it's no big deal! Every major city does this to conserve and it saves us money honey!
As a matter of fact we have already had some this year and you didn't even know. If you come home from work and your clocks blinkin or the time is off than you had one. oh my, this ain't Kansas anymore!

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by twiggy

Source: Salt River Project

ROLLING BLACKOUTS

The Valley can be susceptible to shortages of electricity during the summer months when demand can exceed supply. A Rolling Blackout occurs when a power company turns off electricity to selected areas to save power. The areas are selected using sophisticated computer programs and models.

The blackouts are typically for one hour, then the power is restored and another area is turned off. Hospitals, airport control towers, police stations, and fire departments are often exempt from these rolling blackouts.

These blackouts usually occur during peak energy usage times, but they can happen at any time of day. Blackouts may affect the same area more than once a day, and may exceed an hour’s duration.

This info is on almost every cities website, even on Wickenburgs!
Wickenburg AZ - Official Website
It's no secret and it's no big deal! Every major city does this to conserve and it saves us money honey!
As a matter of fact we have already had some this year and you didn't even know. If you come home from work and your clocks blinkin or the time is off than you had one. oh my, this ain't Kansas anymore!

I repeat. Give me one example of when this has occurred. You are quoting from brochures about how such and such CAN happen. Of course, it can. When DID it happen? Dates, times, reasons?