PG&E's will show us

[sammyg2]

Good thing we still have So Cal Edison!

California fire danger spikes with most powerful winds of the season
By JOSEPH SERNA, JACLYN COSGROVE
OCT. 8, 2019 10:30 AM


October traditionally brings dangerous fire conditions, with winds and hot temperatures. Officials said Northern California — which has been devastated with two straight years of destructive fires — could see the strongest winds of the season, prompting the state’s largest utility on Monday to announce it is considering a public safety power shut-off for 29 counties.

On Tuesday, Southern California Edison announced it too was considering preventive power outages to more than 100,000 customers in an effort to avoid the ignition of wildfires by electrical equipment.

Here is the what to expect this week:

Santa Ana winds, possibly strong, are expected to develop in the mountains before sunrise Thursday. The winds are expected to be widespread and peak Thursday before weakening slightly Friday and then diminishing Saturday.

The region could see a rapid onset of Santa Anas in the valleys and along the coasts, with northeast winds of 20 to 30 mph and gusts up to 55 mph; in the foothills and mountains, winds of 25 to 40 mph with gusts of up to 70 mph are expected.

Temperatures could reach into the 80s, and the humidity is expected to fall rapidly by Thursday afternoon, which means grasses and brush will be dry and quicker to burn.

Southern California Edison says it is considering power cuts, in advance of the winds, to more than 106,000 customers in parts of eight counties.

The largest numbers of potentially affected utility customers are in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. Also under consideration are areas in Ventura County and portions of Kern, Tulare, Inyo and Mono counties.



The National Weather Service was forecasting “the strongest wind event of the season so far. Now is the time to prepare.”

Citing the potential for extremely dry air and steady winds of up to 30 mph, with gusts that experts said could be twice as strong, Pacific Gas & Electric announced it was considering a public safety power shut-off for 29 counties from Wednesday morning to Thursday afternoon.

[Tobra]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

So a lot of cities and areas with no electricity. Anyone with a water well, no water or electricity.

My sister has a well that runs off solar. Fills a big holding tank on a hill, so unless they use like 3000 gallons of water at night, they are good.

[vash]

my power is out. went off last night at 2:34 am. it was odd the instant silence woke me up.

whatever. i put all my frozen fresh caught tuna in the office freezer. a fellow Pcar buddy loaned me a Honda EU2000 generator. quick ohms-law math, and i determined it will run my fridge. it did. i am only gonna run it while i am home. i just don't have the best way to lock it in my backyards. motorcycle cabling it to a 2 foot tall baby Japanese maple tree just felt stupid. i imagine a generator is a hot commodity among the thieves. it is super quiet tho. and i put some sound dampeners around it.

it feels like camping at this point. the plug in the back of my tacoma runs the ignition on my tankless water heater so at least we have a hot shower.

good times! i just made the best marinara sauce out of the last of my garden tomatoes. i will make the eggplant lasagna i have planned come hell or highwater. gonna rally and hope to use my bbq grill as an oven.

[vash]

i do believe this is the way of the future. unless we clearcut the electrical transmission line easements or go underground. nothing will change. we cant stop wind and dry grass.

maybe a solar system with batteries is in our future.

[Por_sha911]

I hope everyone gets through this O.K.

Observation (not blame) - this whole scenario exists because of people wanting to put homes in places where they shouldn't be. Forest fires, droughts, high winds, floods... are going to happen. No one thought about that before they built the city or cute the mountain home nestled in the woods.

Example: The homeowner builds that lovely waterfront home in a flood prone area and then expects the government to provide subsidized flood insurance and then bail them with disaster relief and low interest loans when the home is destroyed.

Looks like juanbenae had some foresight to be prepared with a generator but didn't prepare with the right one.

[juanbenae]

Originally Posted by Por_sha911

I hope everyone gets through this O.K.

Observation (not blame) - this whole scenario exists because of people wanting to put homes in places where they shouldn't be. Forest fires, droughts, high winds, floods... are going to happen. No one thought about that before they built the city or cute the mountain home nestled in the woods.

Example: The homeowner builds that lovely waterfront home in a flood prone area and then expects the government to provide subsidized flood insurance and then bail them with disaster relief and low interest loans when the home is destroyed.

Looks like juanbenae had some foresight to be prepared with a generator but didn't prepare with the right one.

been in my new home a month today. just happy to have a generator because per the news I watched this morning you could not get one as they are sold out at the stores. gas is sold out in town so I will be running it just enough to keep the fridge good and flush from time to time.

I do have solar powered garage with a stand alone system not tied into the home circuitry in any way. will be running a thick gauge cord from the detached unit into the house for other needs. it's gunna be like camping on hardwood floors.


after a very calm morning the forecasted wind is picking up mightily.

[Deschodt]

That totally feels like a FU from PG&E... A lot of folks near me are without power since last night and the winds aren't even here until tonight... My question is of a technical nature. I've lived in other places in the world that experience 80-90mph winds monthly. Never heard of an outage because of high winds there.

Is it because PG&E doesn't use modern tech for their lines or because they don't maintain the trees near them, or had no choice but to put the lines near trees, or what ? Feels very 1/3rd world right now...

[biosurfer1]

No, it's because last time they waited to see if winds would get bad, by the time it did, it was too late and caused a fire that cost them billions. It takes hours to properly shut down a grid. They have been raked over the coals about why wasn't power shut down before the Camp Fire.

If I ran PG&E, I would do the same exact thing they are. Dont like the power being off? Too damn bad. The alternative is possibly your house or complete town being wiped out.

Is it overkill to turn off power to 500k+ people? Yep, and that is the consequence.

Leave the power on, millions of people complain. Turn the power off, millions of people complain. Only difference is turning the power off means they remove the liability of paying for a wild fire.

There are tons, and TONS of reasons to not like the IOU's, but being hyper protective because of what they have dealt with the past several years isn't one. They are doing EXACTLY what people told them they should have done.

[Sooner or later]

Originally Posted by biosurfer1

No, it's because last time they waited to see if winds would get bad, by the time it did, it was too late and caused a fire that cost them billions. It takes hours to properly shut down a grid. They have been raked over the coals about why wasn't power shut down before the Camp Fire.

If I ran PG&E, I would do the same exact thing they are. Dont like the power being off? Too damn bad. The alternative is possibly your house or complete town being wiped out.

Is it overkill to turn off power to 500k+ people? Yep, and that is the consequence.

Leave the power on, millions of people complain. Turn the power off, millions of people complain. Only difference is turning the power off means they remove the liability of paying for a wild fire.

There are tons, and TONS of reasons to not like the IOU's, but being hyper protective because of what they have dealt with the past several years isn't one. They are doing EXACTLY what people told them they should have done.

They are doing what they are doing because they didn't do what they needed to do years ago.

WSJ wore em out. NBC Bay Area did the same. Internal emails show they knew they had transmission lines "at high risk of failure" and failed to take action.

There is always risk of fire in an area that has had a high risk for centuries. But to blatantly ignore substandard equipment is inexcusable. Hell, they have the 4th highest electrical rates in the US. 50% higher than the US avg. They had the money.

[Sooner or later]

PGE paid out over a billion and a half dollars in dividends in 2016 and 2017 combined. But they couldn't find the money to upgrade old lines. Investors were a higher priority than customers or safety.

[john70t]

Originally Posted by Sooner or later

PGE paid out over a billion and a half dollars in dividends in 2016 and 2017 combined. But they couldn't find the money to upgrade old lines. Investors were a higher priority than customers or safety.

Public utilities (monopolies) are a commodity in California?

Ho Lee

[biosurfer1]

So the answer is they should go back in time and spend their money differently?? Doesn't seem helpful.

Clearly PG&E was and still probably is poorly run. But sitting around talking about what they should have done is a 100% waste of time.

I could sit around at work and whine and complain about what previous management did wrong, or perhaps my time is better spent trying to fix what they did wrong and make sure it doesn't happen again, unless Doc Brown is planning on showing up in his Delorean soon.

[Sooner or later]

Originally Posted by biosurfer1

So the answer is they should go back in time and spend their money differently?? Doesn't seem helpful.

Clearly PG&E was and still probably is poorly run. But sitting around talking about what they should have done is a 100% waste of time.

I could sit around at work and whine and complain about what previous management did wrong, or perhaps my time is better spent trying to fix what they did wrong and make sure it doesn't happen again, unless Doc Brown is planning on showing up in his Delorean soon.

I said they are doing what they have to do. No doubt about that. They were screwed up for years and deserve to be criticized.

It is not a good look for Cali.

[biosurfer1]

It's the only look we got these days😒

[Sooner or later]

You have your problems. Just like every other state.

[dan88911]

Originally Posted by vash

i do believe this is the way of the future. unless we clearcut the electrical transmission line easements or go underground. nothing will change. we cant stop wind and dry grass.

maybe a solar system with batteries is in our future.

Yeah! and a huge water tank to catch rain run off for your own fire suppression system.
And of course build with fire resistant materials.
Wholly crap what's that going to cost.

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by dan88911

Yeah! and a huge water tank to catch rain run off for your own fire suppression system.
And of course build with fire resistant materials.
Wholly crap what's that going to cost.

maybe less than you think - you clear vege. away from your house (including your firewood pile)

the roof can be steel (lasts longer than shingles anyway)

the walls can maybe have fire resistant materials cladded over the existing so demo costs won't apply

the above is less than a lot of special Porsches...

[Rapewta]

Pacific Gas and electric Co. has made a righteous decision.
For two years now everyone that lives in vulnerable fire locations has had plenty of time to clear off high risk dry vegetation and put your damn generator in.
I have no sympathy. Quit letting the California government divert our tax dollars for other
BS and work with P.G.&E to cut down and remove all the over run trees that have the potential
to swing into the power lines.

[Tobra]

Originally Posted by Deschodt

That totally feels like a FU from PG&E... A lot of folks near me are without power since last night and the winds aren't even here until tonight... My question is of a technical nature. I've lived in other places in the world that experience 80-90mph winds monthly. Never heard of an outage because of high winds there.

Is it because PG&E doesn't use modern tech for their lines or because they don't maintain the trees near them, or had no choice but to put the lines near trees, or what ? Feels very 1/3rd world right now...

That is because it is a big FU from PG&E.

This is one of a fair number of recent issues secondary to inadequate maintenance on their equipment.

This is them setting up to raise rates so they have the dough to do the maintenance they should have been doing all along.

[biosurfer1]

Every "expert" on social media keeps saying they should be spending billions on upgrades and maintenance and my first thought is always... WTF?!? They don't even have enough money to cover their debt and liability as they currently stand, where is all these billions going to come from? Where does everyone think PG&E gets their money? Ratepayers and investors, and sitting in bankruptcy court you sure aren't getting much from the investors, so they are basically demanding they be charged more?!?

Go ahead, I have solar and couldn't care less what they charge.