SeabeeRon
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Very cool, something else we have in common!
PG&E turned the power off
- Thread starter cw0909
- Start date
Very cool, something else we have in common!
SeabeeRon
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PG&E does/did all the stuff you mention above.
Upper Mngmt deferred some system upgrades and maintenance over the years.
Being found at least partially responsible for the devastating fires over the last two years, the costs were such that bankruptcy was the only choice. We/they are still going through the process.
As a retiree with a pension, I watch this closely as you can imagine! Supposedly, the Pension Plan for existing retirees is protected.
DeepseekerADS
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December 1987 to April 1988 - Maintenance Planner
Contracted to Pacific Gas & Electric Company, Diablo Canyon Power Plant, Avila Beach, CA
Prepared corrective maintenance work packages for repairs to mechanical plant equipment in preparation for back to back refueling outages. Wrote step-by-step instructions using computerized work station (PIMS).
OP
OP
cw0909
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took a little digging, found how and why ca. electric co.
have a [FONT="]Public Safety Power Shut-offs (PSPS)
--------------
[/FONT][FONT="]The State's investor-owned electric utilities, notably Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), may shut off electric power, referred to as "de-energization" or Public Safety Power Shut-offs (PSPS), to protect public safety under California law, specifically [/FONT]California Public Utilities Code[FONT="] (PU Code) Sections 451 and 399.2(a).[/FONT][FONT="]
https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/deenergization/
[/FONT]
have a [FONT="]Public Safety Power Shut-offs (PSPS)
--------------
[/FONT][FONT="]The State's investor-owned electric utilities, notably Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), may shut off electric power, referred to as "de-energization" or Public Safety Power Shut-offs (PSPS), to protect public safety under California law, specifically [/FONT]California Public Utilities Code[FONT="] (PU Code) Sections 451 and 399.2(a).[/FONT][FONT="]
https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/deenergization/
[/FONT]
Charlie P. (NY)
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The solution to wildfire started by wind and power lines is to force everybody cook their food with propane, kerosene, wood or charcoal using an open flame.
Well that'll never work!
It's California. They only eat raw fruits and vegetables, anyway.
ARC
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Top 5...
5. Michigan
Michigan’s most interesting fact about its power outages may be that it has the highest outages per capita than other states. Weather-related outages caused 56 of the 155 outages in 2017. Faulty equipment took second place with 36 caused outages. Average outages lasted just over an hour and affected just over 2 million people over the course of the year.
Odd Outage Fact: A dashboard video revealed the cause of an outage that affected 4,500 customers for five hours to be a goose. The camera caught the animal falling lifelessly from the sky. The bird apparently hit a 7,200-volt line, which tripped a nearby transformer.
4. Ohio
Another Midwestern state joins Michigan in the nation’s top five. While Ohio suffered more outages than Michigan in 2017 (158) the outages affected only 663,000 customers. Similar to other states near the Great Lakes, Ohioans experience the most outages due to weather.
Odd Outage Fact: A cement mixer caused a blackout in Edgerton when the driver tried to pass a tractor but veered too far to the side. The truck was pulled into the ditch, and turned the mixer sideways, sending it into a power pole, which it severed.
3. New York
Yet again, weather remains the number one factor for power outages in this east coast state. New York had 165 outages affecting almost 900,000 people in 2017. Nor’easters are to blame for the most weather-related outages and had many suburban citizens calling for tree removal to help prevent the damage. Thankfully, the average duration of an outage is only about an hour.
Odd Outage Fact: A train derailment triggered a power outage in Manhattan. Nearly three dozen people were injured when two cars of a subway flew off the rails.The accident triggerd a blackout that stopped service on four subway lines.
2. Texas
Everything’s bigger in Texas. Including the number of power outages. Texas takes the number two spot for power outages in 2017 with 192 outages affecting 1.1 million people. Heatwaves and flooding caused the majority of the outages in Texas in 2017.
Odd Outage Fact: A buzzard got into some equipment in a Crandall substation. It resulted in an outage to 1,527 customers.
1. California
In 2017, California ranked number one in four of the categories that Eaton Blackout Tracker monitors. These categories are vehicle accidents, animal outages, faulty equipment and weather. The state saw 438 outages over the year that affected almost 3 million people. A quarter of power losses reported had no definite reason.
Odd Outage Fact: A bobcat climbed to the top of a power pole in Cambria, shorting out the circuit at the end of his climb and cutting power to 3,530 customers. The animal did not survive.
5. Michigan
Michigan’s most interesting fact about its power outages may be that it has the highest outages per capita than other states. Weather-related outages caused 56 of the 155 outages in 2017. Faulty equipment took second place with 36 caused outages. Average outages lasted just over an hour and affected just over 2 million people over the course of the year.
Odd Outage Fact: A dashboard video revealed the cause of an outage that affected 4,500 customers for five hours to be a goose. The camera caught the animal falling lifelessly from the sky. The bird apparently hit a 7,200-volt line, which tripped a nearby transformer.
4. Ohio
Another Midwestern state joins Michigan in the nation’s top five. While Ohio suffered more outages than Michigan in 2017 (158) the outages affected only 663,000 customers. Similar to other states near the Great Lakes, Ohioans experience the most outages due to weather.
Odd Outage Fact: A cement mixer caused a blackout in Edgerton when the driver tried to pass a tractor but veered too far to the side. The truck was pulled into the ditch, and turned the mixer sideways, sending it into a power pole, which it severed.
3. New York
Yet again, weather remains the number one factor for power outages in this east coast state. New York had 165 outages affecting almost 900,000 people in 2017. Nor’easters are to blame for the most weather-related outages and had many suburban citizens calling for tree removal to help prevent the damage. Thankfully, the average duration of an outage is only about an hour.
Odd Outage Fact: A train derailment triggered a power outage in Manhattan. Nearly three dozen people were injured when two cars of a subway flew off the rails.The accident triggerd a blackout that stopped service on four subway lines.
2. Texas
Everything’s bigger in Texas. Including the number of power outages. Texas takes the number two spot for power outages in 2017 with 192 outages affecting 1.1 million people. Heatwaves and flooding caused the majority of the outages in Texas in 2017.
Odd Outage Fact: A buzzard got into some equipment in a Crandall substation. It resulted in an outage to 1,527 customers.
1. California
In 2017, California ranked number one in four of the categories that Eaton Blackout Tracker monitors. These categories are vehicle accidents, animal outages, faulty equipment and weather. The state saw 438 outages over the year that affected almost 3 million people. A quarter of power losses reported had no definite reason.
Odd Outage Fact: A bobcat climbed to the top of a power pole in Cambria, shorting out the circuit at the end of his climb and cutting power to 3,530 customers. The animal did not survive.
Madmox
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Does your power company have 125,000 miles of powerlines? Let me run that number by you again....125,000 miles.
cyzak
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I bet the emergency generator company's are having a field day with this.
Deep1
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Post #3: What a shame...PG&E was one of the richest power companies around...
The reason they're rich, they don't put money into maintenance, they put in in their pocket.
Post #4: JW you are exactly precisely correct, peeps want to be served and then sue.
They are paying for a service. If you went to a brake shop and paid for new brakes and they didn't do anything and charged you for a brake job and you get out on the road and your brakes don't work, you hit a tree and wind up paralyzed, you wouldn't sue them?
Post #14: There is ONE group of people who's shoulders bear full responsibility for the catastrophic wildfires last year.
The extreme There is ONE group of people who's shoulders bear full responsibility for the catastrophic wildfires last year.
The extreme environmental groups have made it impossible to perform forest management profitably, to clear vegetation below and around power lines...to responsibly use herbacides(herbicides) to maintain fire breaks, ect.
Environmental groups have nothing to do with PG&E lack of maintenance.
Oh yeah, herbicides is the way to go.
Go buy a gallon of Round Up( Glyphosate), pour it in a bucket and stick you hand in it for a while and don't wash it off, What do you think will happen?
Herbicides kill everything, Frogs, butterflies, bees, everything that's sprayed dies a painful death.
"New Study Shows Roundup Kills Bees. The most widely sprayed herbicide in the world kills honeybees, according to a new report. Glyphosate, an herbicide and active ingredient in Monsanto's (now Bayer's) Roundup weed killer, targets enzymes long assumed to be found only in plants.
https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/new-study-shows-roundup-kills-bees
Post #11: Granted, some of the wild fires over the last few years were caused by faulty equipment on PG&E's side. Most were due to poor forest management around the overhead lines. There is much blame to go around for that including Federal/State governments, private property owners as well as PG&E itself!
When I started with PG&E in 1968 the company upper management was made up of those who "came up through the ranks", lineman and engineers. By the time I retired 40 years later it was run by Bean Counters and Lawyers and much needed maintenance was "deferred" or just cancelled!!
SBR, I respect your input, as you are speaking with first hand knowledge.
But, all power companies have a right of way for their lines, that right of way includes a swath of land on either side of the lines that is a safety margin.
If the ROW is properly maintained, Then a fire should not affect the lines.
Here's how it's done:
You are right about the BC's, all they're looking at is how much money they can make.
More profit, more bonus for them.
That's the problem.
Post 27:
Does your power company have 125,000 miles of powerlines? Let me run that number by you again....125,000 miles.
Who pays for that 125,000 miles?
The customers, that's why they have to pay an electric bill.
This isn't a problem that happened yesterday.
Lack of maintenance has been going on for years.
But now, it's coming back to bite them in the butt.
Classic case of corporate greed.
Now, they are going bankrupt to either avoid or mitigate their losses and keep their money.
They should have to pay out all their money in the bank and sell their non essential assets and when they run out of that, they can pay with future profits.
All the people whose lives were ruined by PG&E deserve to be fairly compensated.
Post #7: It's not just California. How is the infrastructure in your neck of the woods?. You have cities where its not safe to drink the water, bridges on the verge of collapsing and roadways that will shake the screws out of your car. I was in China this year. I rode a train that ran 250 miles an hour. It's not just California, It's the whole country.
And That's my thoughts on this.
The reason they're rich, they don't put money into maintenance, they put in in their pocket.
Post #4: JW you are exactly precisely correct, peeps want to be served and then sue.
They are paying for a service. If you went to a brake shop and paid for new brakes and they didn't do anything and charged you for a brake job and you get out on the road and your brakes don't work, you hit a tree and wind up paralyzed, you wouldn't sue them?
Post #14: There is ONE group of people who's shoulders bear full responsibility for the catastrophic wildfires last year.
The extreme There is ONE group of people who's shoulders bear full responsibility for the catastrophic wildfires last year.
The extreme environmental groups have made it impossible to perform forest management profitably, to clear vegetation below and around power lines...to responsibly use herbacides(herbicides) to maintain fire breaks, ect.
Environmental groups have nothing to do with PG&E lack of maintenance.
Oh yeah, herbicides is the way to go.
Go buy a gallon of Round Up( Glyphosate), pour it in a bucket and stick you hand in it for a while and don't wash it off, What do you think will happen?
Herbicides kill everything, Frogs, butterflies, bees, everything that's sprayed dies a painful death.
"New Study Shows Roundup Kills Bees. The most widely sprayed herbicide in the world kills honeybees, according to a new report. Glyphosate, an herbicide and active ingredient in Monsanto's (now Bayer's) Roundup weed killer, targets enzymes long assumed to be found only in plants.
https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/new-study-shows-roundup-kills-bees
Post #11: Granted, some of the wild fires over the last few years were caused by faulty equipment on PG&E's side. Most were due to poor forest management around the overhead lines. There is much blame to go around for that including Federal/State governments, private property owners as well as PG&E itself!
When I started with PG&E in 1968 the company upper management was made up of those who "came up through the ranks", lineman and engineers. By the time I retired 40 years later it was run by Bean Counters and Lawyers and much needed maintenance was "deferred" or just cancelled!!
SBR, I respect your input, as you are speaking with first hand knowledge.
But, all power companies have a right of way for their lines, that right of way includes a swath of land on either side of the lines that is a safety margin.
If the ROW is properly maintained, Then a fire should not affect the lines.
Here's how it's done:
You are right about the BC's, all they're looking at is how much money they can make.
More profit, more bonus for them.
That's the problem.
Post 27:
Does your power company have 125,000 miles of powerlines? Let me run that number by you again....125,000 miles.
Who pays for that 125,000 miles?
The customers, that's why they have to pay an electric bill.
This isn't a problem that happened yesterday.
Lack of maintenance has been going on for years.
But now, it's coming back to bite them in the butt.
Classic case of corporate greed.
Now, they are going bankrupt to either avoid or mitigate their losses and keep their money.
They should have to pay out all their money in the bank and sell their non essential assets and when they run out of that, they can pay with future profits.
All the people whose lives were ruined by PG&E deserve to be fairly compensated.
Post #7: It's not just California. How is the infrastructure in your neck of the woods?. You have cities where its not safe to drink the water, bridges on the verge of collapsing and roadways that will shake the screws out of your car. I was in China this year. I rode a train that ran 250 miles an hour. It's not just California, It's the whole country.
And That's my thoughts on this.
IMAUDIGGER
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Respectfully, these groups of people play a CRITICAL role in forest management (or lack of).
Megalodon
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I haven't seen that here. Its just too easy to blame specific groups - unless you want to blame those who withhold the funding necessary for forest management (or fisheries management, wildlife management, etc). There are professionals who know what to do. Just let them do their job.
Duckshot
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When PG&E go completely bust after a decade or two of abuse from the courts and the State, where are you PG&E customers going be then? There is a monopoly in play and the only solution to the tyranny of monopoly is competition.
I fear the state will never allow the monopoly to dissolve. California legislature would probably try to seize the power business for the State. And, then the state can REALLY run up power prices while sending taxpayers towards the poorhouse at the speed of light. Just like Venezuela did when they nationalized their oil businesses.
I fear the state will never allow the monopoly to dissolve. California legislature would probably try to seize the power business for the State. And, then the state can REALLY run up power prices while sending taxpayers towards the poorhouse at the speed of light. Just like Venezuela did when they nationalized their oil businesses.
SeabeeRon
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Please don't make posts better made in the Charter Members Politics Forum get this thread LOCKED!
IMAUDIGGER
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Deleted.
I will refrain from discussing the actual cause of the catastrophic wildfires in California.
Megalodon
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I'm happy to get electricity from a rural electric cooperative - owned by its members. It is so good that I would likely not consider a move to a location served by an electric company in business to enrich its CEO, screw the ratepayers, and pollute at will, or to an area served by a city, county, or state owned utility run by appointees.
As a retiree who relies on a small pension supplemented by my personal investment dividends, I will not buy any mutual fund that holds stocks of utilities, despite their dividends.
As a retiree who relies on a small pension supplemented by my personal investment dividends, I will not buy any mutual fund that holds stocks of utilities, despite their dividends.
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Pulltabfelix, no politics except in our politics forum.
digger27
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Yep, I see that.
My brother in law is a lineman and he has worked every storm hit state in the SE over the years.
DeepseekerADS
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Maybe I should mention the path I took to get out of being NOTHING to some sense of success. Maybe it will open the right eyes.
There is a "professional" industry no one knows about except those lucky enough to stumble into = CONTRACTING yourself out. There's companies we called "Job Shops". And I ended up a Job Shopper, and that's why I ended up with 57 projects in 29 states. The money was very good, sometimes 3 times the wages of those we called "Direct Employees" = Worked for the "Company". There are likely still times that industry needs some "Temporary" employees = "Bring them in, get the job done, and send them home"
My specific career was Mechanical Piping Design, started off as a boiler maker = started actually as a helper. Got lucky enough to work my way into drafting, and then into design as I learned the industry - and was NEVER afraid to quit a job and go to another new and better one. Just what did I have to lose, as I had nothing before?
So, I took the dare, or the "opportunity" every step of the way = always left jobs for better opportunities. I was nothing before I stumbled into the industry or that philosophy...
Morale of the story, never stop dreaming and achieving, take the bold step sometimes = but after fully understanding the win/lose affects.
I was lost, living in a trailer in the boon docks and my best friends had moved on already. So I took that step just praying something better awaited.
Ended up with me feeling mighty fine up here tonight, with complete peace (but that does not say each day does not have its' challenge). Life is good up here with only the critters
It's not on my priorities to deal with local humans = they got their own gig, AND problems I don't need.
There is a "professional" industry no one knows about except those lucky enough to stumble into = CONTRACTING yourself out. There's companies we called "Job Shops". And I ended up a Job Shopper, and that's why I ended up with 57 projects in 29 states. The money was very good, sometimes 3 times the wages of those we called "Direct Employees" = Worked for the "Company". There are likely still times that industry needs some "Temporary" employees = "Bring them in, get the job done, and send them home"
My specific career was Mechanical Piping Design, started off as a boiler maker = started actually as a helper. Got lucky enough to work my way into drafting, and then into design as I learned the industry - and was NEVER afraid to quit a job and go to another new and better one. Just what did I have to lose, as I had nothing before?
So, I took the dare, or the "opportunity" every step of the way = always left jobs for better opportunities. I was nothing before I stumbled into the industry or that philosophy...
Morale of the story, never stop dreaming and achieving, take the bold step sometimes = but after fully understanding the win/lose affects.
I was lost, living in a trailer in the boon docks and my best friends had moved on already. So I took that step just praying something better awaited.
Ended up with me feeling mighty fine up here tonight, with complete peace (but that does not say each day does not have its' challenge). Life is good up here with only the critters
It's not on my priorities to deal with local humans = they got their own gig, AND problems I don't need.
Last edited:
BillA
Bronze Member
DADS, went the same route as an engineer - became a consultant
worked like a dog and made a bunch of money, and then it hit me -> freedom was at hand
for the rest of my life I worked a maximum of 3 months per year (with one brief horrible interlude), 35 on
off topic, sorry
worked like a dog and made a bunch of money, and then it hit me -> freedom was at hand
for the rest of my life I worked a maximum of 3 months per year (with one brief horrible interlude), 35 on
off topic, sorry
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