PG&E Shutting off power.

[cwerdna]

I'm part of the PG&E mess. My power went out ~11:58 pm on 10/9. My Comcrap broadband access went out at ~12:45 am so I turned off the UPSes that powered my router and cable modem. I've tethered my laptop to my phone.

I'm running a Samlex 1000 watt pure sine wave inverter off my Bolt in READY mode. I've been experimenting to see if the various workarounds for the stupid car turning itself off while in P after 1 hour work. So far, I've had to put the car in neutral w/the parking brake on by entering from the passenger side, pushing the brake pedal w/the metal rod to shift to N then exiting from the passenger side. We'll see...

I'd feel much safer leaving the car in P, but that may not be possible.
edit: (fixed typo with hour)

[LeftieBiker]

What about wheel blocks for extra security?

[Calaveras]

I have been without electricity for 2 days
I have been getting a ride to work because both my EVs have enough to get me to work, but not home.
The power is off at work and the free L2 charger nearby.

[palmermd]

I have been without electricity for 2 days
I have been getting a ride to work because both my EVs have enough to get me to work, but not home.
The power is off at work and the free L2 charger nearby.

Power off at work and at home....sounds like a "snow day" to me.

[SageBrush]

PG&E is going to have a lot of angry customers. The political fall-out is going to be interesting: Give PG&E a ton of money to fix the problems or build something new.

If this was me I think I would live in my Tesla. Easily 2 weeks of conditioned air, wi-fi, and a big screen.

[GRA]

As I expected but was unable to confirm until today (because PG&E's webpage showing outage areas was inaccessible for most of the past two days, apparently due to too much traffic), my power stayed on, as I'm at low level near the bay, and the high winds have been mostly at 1,000 feet and up: Mount St. Helena (North Bay, 4,340') recorded a gust of 77 mph early this morning, Mt. Diablo (East Bay, 3,849') one of 75 mph, and Mt. Umunhum (South Bay, 3,484') one of 65 mph. Fortunately, while the winds have been strong and dry, the temps have been moderate to cool in many areas.

As to the reasons for the outages, here's an SF Chronicle article from Oct. 1st, mentioning PG&Es "progress" in their planned tree-trimming for this year:

PG&E is less than one-third done with its 2019 tree-trimming work

https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/ar ... 483596.php


Here's a McPaper article going into the factors that have led up to this:

'A victim of their own failure': Why PG&E's massive power shutdown in California was inevitable

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nat ... 924699002/

[Oilpan4]

They're more worried about the spotted owl.
Responsible forestry isn't letting it grow wild.

The useful idiot fake environmentalists have stopped forestry just outside of Albuquerque with in the last few weeks using the same bs they pull in California.

[WetEV]

They're more worried about the spotted owl.
Responsible forestry isn't letting it grow wild.

The useful idiot fake environmentalists have stopped forestry just outside of Albuquerque with in the last few weeks using the same bs they pull in California.

Wonder why there were forests before "Responsible forestry".

[DaveinOlyWA]

Not much of a shock. This is the modern way of things. Look around you; nothing but a degrading infrastructure that is getting less reliable every day.

Most of the power lines were funded by the government back in the 30's. So utilities only had to maintain them but the remoteness along with the sheer volume of the task has them cutting corners on a budget that barely covers a few hundred acres of preventative maintenance.

It is like that everywhere. Here in the tree ladened Pacific Northwest, we see power outages coming MONTHS in advance as trees grow over , under and around power lines. Add a little wind, weight from snow or rain and we now have emergency crews making TOP dollar at triple time rates out there fixing it instead of paying summer crews basic wages to trim.

Get used to it. This is the new normal... oh wait.. I guess its not new; has been this way for decades. We can start with Reagan if you want to finger point.

[GRA]

If anyone's wondering how we got to where we are now, I finished this book last week, an act of serendipity considering what we're currently dealing with:

The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future

https://www.amazon.com/Grid-Fraying-Bet ... oks&sr=1-1


I was aware of some aspects of this, especially 1978's PURPA (Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act) and how it affected AE by forcing utilities to take power from anyone (<80MW) and pay the avoided price, and the effect of the 1992 NEPA (National Energy Policy Act) on the utilities more directly by forcing them to get partially or wholly out of the generation business, but this covers a whole lot else, from the very start of an "electric grid" up to the present.


OT, the book briefly discusses the Depression-era REA (Rural Electrification Administration), which was responsible for giving most U.S. residents living away from cities electricity for the first time. It's somewhat hard to believe, given how used to electricity we are, but some years ago I read an account (I wish I could remember where) of the effect of electrification on one rural family when the REA ran powerlines to and wired their farmhouse. The family had been out working in the fields all day, out of sight of the farmhouse, while the crew wired the house and installed light fixtures and lights. Around dusk the family was walking back to the house, when they saw it and immediately began running towards it, yelling to each other that the house was on fire! After finishing the installation the work crew had turned all the lights in the house on and left them on, and what the family thought was a sign of their house being on fire was the bright blaze of electric light, which they'd never experienced before.

See https://livingnewdeal.org/glossary/rura ... -rea-1935/ for more details of the REA,

and for the effect:

Electricity's Impact on Rural Life
"The Day the Lights Came on"

https://www.ncpedia.org/agriculture/electricity