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Location: When you take flak it means you are on target
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Yes, last week we were in Mammoth Lakes, a ski resort in the Sierra Nevada. They had their power cut the day before we arrived and they warned us to keep a flashlight handy and be ready in case it happened again. We saw several crews out trimming trees. I guess they are taking this seriously now.
It's a new thing the power companies are doing since the Paradise fire. I think the power company behind that one is going to be sued into bankruptcy.
My personal opinions aside, and many are aware if they have followed my posts, I have a duty here. PLEASE keep this on topic to the forum on how to prepare, how to go through the experience, how to prevent it in the future - WITHOUT going into politics, climate change, and other side topics.
You all are smart, experienced in thinking along the lines needed, and can help others. Take the high road.
But if I were stuck there due to employment or family, I'd install a back-up solar system, complete with batteries and electronics. That's the only way to retain some sanity during what may well become an annual interruption. I don't worry about Maine's regular winter outages - I supply my own power and am not even aware of when there's an outage, unless I'm in town.
California passed a law that all new construction has to include solar panels. The irony is that the vast majority of people have grid tie systems which means their solar-equipped homes have zero electricity when the grid is down.
California passed a law that all new construction has to include solar panels. The irony is that the vast majority of people have grid tie systems which means their solar-equipped homes have zero electricity when the grid is down.
Definitely ironic... Couldn't you install some sort of transfer switch on a grid tie system to make it work when the grid is down? Granted you wouldn't have batteries, but while the sun is shining? Anyways a grid tie system is dumb IMO, go big or go home .
Actually, this is a fantastic lesson on prepping. The background is political and commercial, but I think this a great instance on exactly why it's important to be prepared.
A bit of background information on this instance:
1. Utilities have power generation and they have power distribution. Obviously, the most profitable areas to service are the cities, where you have many buildings requiring power on a piece of land that likely has been leveled a bit. The least profitable areas are the one-off groups of homes up steep hills where you guy a one lane road and PG&E has to try and find a way of getting power up an irregular hillside with deep woods and constantly keep that power line clear.
2. These difficulties for years were heard with very understanding ears at the Public Utilities Commission, and year on year increases above inflation were the norm, making PG&E a very profitable utility. As rates become cost plus, there was little reason to trim costs and effectively getting things done became a nightmare as every move required signoffs and notifications to the nth degree. An army of specialists is hired and met by an army of bureaucrats. The stasis gets firmly pinned at doing nothing.
3. Time passes and the region grows. Not just a little, but a ton. The entire Bay Area really becomes continuous city as Silicon Valley continues to explode. With the Valley filled, people begin tromping up ever more hills and PG&E keeps up, all while ensuring compliance with tremendous law requirements. Still, the system becomes overtaxed, and breakdowns happen.
4. Gas explosions in San Bruno, following earlier ones is where the honeymoon really ended, with subsequent explosions in San Francisco cementing PG&E's fate as public enemy #1. Rather than helping to calm people, the government was quick to score points and whip up a frenzy. Calls for criminal charges came. The fines got more massive. The compliance requirements tougher....and there was even some modernization happening....in the cities.
5. The other danger was environmentalists. First PG&E was required to acquire 1/3 of its energy from renewable sources. It had to be monitored with new smart meters to every building that better tracked the time and amount. It needed to hook up all solar projects and plug them into the grid. It was paid nothing for conveyance of the energy and more and more of the energy sold was no longer produced by them. Another law is passed that requires all new homes to be solar ready. PG&E looks to become regulated out of business. Can you imagine spending millions of dollars to run a line up a hill to a group of residents that are all solar powered but on-grid?
6. Disaster struck. The Napa fire consumes huge portions of countryside and PG&E is found liable for it all. The government realizes too late that they can't put the genie released back in the bottle and PG&E declares bankruptcy. The utility with a monopoly over some of the richest residents in the nation for an essential needed by all.
7. Still in proceedings, PG&E is forced to offer a green alternative which it will have to carry on her lines but they won't get the generation funds for. The Governor Newsom stands ready to cut down the utility once and for all. The utility knows it can't guarantee an electrical system up and down mountains that won't spark in areas where tree removal requires a permit and there are plenty of dead tinder....so they make a move. They simply decide not to power the hilly remote regions. They take a stand and decide that if they're going to be regulated to losses, they'll simply take their ball and go home,
PG&E just took a massive swing at our Progressive Leader Newsom worthy of Vanderbilt to NYC. They just turned those power lines from liability into a trump card. No power passes without their say so, and they say it's unsafe.
Your move Sacramento. Your move. How long you want your retail centers down? How long you want to keep law and order in the dark?
This is a dumb question, but why doesn't PG&E bury the electric lines in the same right-of way they have the poles? I would think they could go above ground in areas where it would be prohibitively expensive to bury them (under rivers, towns, etc.).
And, why weren't they buried to begin with in an area known for wind-driven fires? Is there a problem with burying lines above a certain voltage? Another option would be to go "higher", above the tree canopy. Obviously this isn't something that can be done in a short period of time, but don't these folks do future planning?
Edit: I see now that I should have read Artillery's thread before posting, that was a pretty comprehensive summation of the problem. The thread's title of "non-survivalists" fits well.
The State starts to remind people not to throw eggs at PG&E workers and to....well, don't shoot at their vehicles either. Link is for a timeline. A dumb question gets you through the paywall.
As the original OP showed, there was a rush to get gasoline and supplies at the early stage when things weren't known. Now that we know that it's a controlled power down, there's little concern. Albeit one colleague with a liquor store on Alum Rock planned on camping out there until power was restored.
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