PG&E Planning Widespread Power Outages in the San Francisco Bay Area

deleted-200707 · 2019-10-24T20:28:07.000Z

with all our flashlights, lighting is not the big priority, medical devices and frig/freezers are

kuoh · 2019-10-24T21:59:32.000Z

Emergency lighting provide short term lighting and the cheaper ones typically use a standard lead acid batter that has to be replaced every couple of years anyway. They also don’t have on/off switches so will waste power. A battery with inverter is much more flexible for power delivery and allows you to conserve power when not needed.

KuoH

grin:

Emergency lighting has battery back up built in. Would it be better to have battery backup in home lighting that is only charged when needed than to have one big battery?

grin · 2019-10-24T22:26:00.000Z

Lightbringer:

grin:

Problem is the people who can do something about are the ones benefitting from it. To a certain extent even me. The money that should have been used on maintenance is being shown as profit. Only way to do anything is get rid of the old and bring in the new. But then it will start all over again.

Yaaaaaay, government.

Government filled the coal stack then sold it. the new company burnt all the coal then said to the government unless you pay for the fuel we cant run the generator. So the taxpayer pays higher power prices and subsidies the fuel for a private company. It is great setup.

Lightbringer · 2019-10-24T22:53:20.000Z

Who writes up those contracts, then?

Officers of a corporation can be held liable in some cases. If fraud was evident, gov could’ve gone after those officers.

Same like “cost overruns” when contractors are selected to design/build the next submarine, fighter jet, a/c carrier, etc. They bid with a lowball price, get the contract, then charge endlessly well in excess of that price. Hold ’em to it, or else!

Muto · 2019-10-25T01:00:05.000Z

KeepingItLight:

Unfortunately, this is where my lack of expertise shows up. I didn’t know about the $100 million diversion until last night. I don’t have a clue whether PG&E was held accountable for it or not. It is probably true, however, that the 2010 explosion began a period of increased scrutiny of PG&E on the part of its regulators. It’s been a rough decade for PG&E. So far as I can recall, though, no one has gone to jail.

No one went to jail over the attacks of 9/11 either, just sayin’

People were held accountable for Pearl Harbor, but now no one is held accountable on these grand events.
Land of the Free, etc.

Back on topic, If you live in California a generator/backup power supply should be on your Christmas list.
Doesn’t sound like it is going to get any better soon.

grin · 2019-10-25T02:00:00.000Z

Lightbringer:

Who writes up those contracts, then?

Officers of a corporation can be held liable in some cases. If fraud was evident, gov could’ve gone after those officers.

Same like “cost overruns” when contractors are selected to design/build the next submarine, fighter jet, a/c carrier, etc. They bid with a lowball price, get the contract, then charge endlessly well in excess of that price. Hold ’em to it, or else!

There are rorts that are not illegal happens all the time here. nobody else gives a so no point me worrying about it.

KeepingItLight · 2019-10-25T03:04:50.000Z

Muto:

Back on topic, If you live in California a generator/backup power supply should be on your Christmas list.

Yes! This is probably the best approach for regular folks like me. No point in fretting about it. Just take care of yourself as best you can.

Muto:

Doesn’t sound like it is going to get any better soon.

It was shocking to hear the CEO of PG&E say we may be in for 10 more years of this!

From NPR:

"The CEO of Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. told California energy regulators that the state will likely see blackouts for another 10 years like the one imposed last week that left as many as 800,000 customers without power.

"The revelation by corporation CEO Bill Johnson came Friday at a California Public Utilities Commission meeting at which he said his company is trying to reduce the chances of wildfires by trimming more trees and using technology to target smaller areas of the grid when fire dangers require power outages."

Source: https://www.npr.org/2019/10/18/771486828/california-can-expect-blackouts-for-a-decade-says-pg-e-ceo

djmcconn · 2019-10-25T20:51:45.000Z

Starting to smell like an extortion waning, isn’t it? We were stupid for years so now you people suck it up. I’m sure rate increases or a bailout of some sort will help. A question- Does this smell Enronny?

grin · 2019-10-25T21:11:32.000Z

This is the path Australia is taking. Looks like i need to get moving on my own power plant. i have a silenced 25kva diesel genset, 1kw solar panels all i need is a battery and inverter. With the increases in power prices it will probably save me coin.

snakebite · 2019-10-25T22:55:30.000Z

it would be nice if this motivates a bunch of folks to install battery backed solar and standby generators.
and this removed the need for these crooks.
come get your meter before i pitch it in the trash.

BlueSwordM · 2019-10-26T01:50:43.000Z

TBH, PG&E has done this before, and they should be punished harshly, so next time, they’ll invest in better lines rather than giving their executives huge bonuses.

This makes me want to become even more energy efficient.

Couchmaster · 2019-10-27T02:03:32.000Z

Unfortunately, ^ their actions are contributing significantly to increased CO2 emissions. Everybody and their dog will now be running primarily gas fired generators which have no emission control.

BlueSwordM · 2019-10-27T02:12:57.000Z

Well, isn’t that nice?

Negative feedback loop:

Fires caused by PG&E and global warming > Shuts down power because they can’t take care of their infrastructure > People use more fossil fuel powered appliances > Worsens temperatures > Cycle continues

Anyway, would you guys like to start a solar panel + battery power GB?

Maybe I should start building 2kWh battery boxes with USB ports(USB-A 2,4A, USB PD 3.0), a 12V cigarette plug, a 3,3-36V high power buck converter, and 48VDC power output to an inverter.

Would actually be pretty nice bundled with a 500-600W solar panel setup.

Won’t be powering your electric car anytime soon, but should give you at least a vacuum, a fan, and if built with 2C+ capable cells, around 15 minutes of continuous max power AC use.

Maybe I should do that indeed…

grin · 2019-10-27T07:08:49.000Z

BlueSwordM:

Well, isn’t that nice?

Negative feedback loop:

Fires caused by PG&E and global warming > Shuts down power because they can’t take care of their infrastructure > People use more fossil fuel powered appliances > Worsens temperatures > Cycle continues

Anyway, would you guys like to start a solar panel + battery power GB?

Maybe I should start building 2kWh battery boxes with USB ports(USB-A 2,4A, USB PD 3.0), a 12V cigarette plug, a 3,3-36V high power buck converter, and 48VDC power output to an inverter.

Would actually be pretty nice bundled with a 500-600W solar panel setup.

Won’t be powering your electric car anytime soon, but should give you at least a vacuum, a fan, and if built with 2C+ capable cells, around 15 minutes of continuous max power AC use.

Maybe I should do that indeed…

I have been thinking about this for a long time, my brother has already started a build on a trailer to cut down genset running costs on remote construction sites. During the day solar panels produce the power so the genset and batteries are a backup.

strayz · 2019-10-27T11:17:25.000Z

BlueSwordM:

Well, isn’t that nice?

Negative feedback loop:

Fires caused by PG&E and global warming > Shuts down power because they can’t take care of their infrastructure > People use more fossil fuel powered appliances > Worsens temperatures > Cycle continues

Anyway, would you guys like to start a solar panel + battery power GB?

Maybe I should start building 2kWh battery boxes with USB ports(USB-A 2,4A, USB PD 3.0), a 12V cigarette plug, a 3,3-36V high power buck converter, and 48VDC power output to an inverter.

Would actually be pretty nice bundled with a 500-600W solar panel setup.

Won’t be powering your electric car anytime soon, but should give you at least a vacuum, a fan, and if built with 2C+ capable cells, around 15 minutes of continuous max power AC use.

Maybe I should do that indeed…

Build 1000 of them and drive your truck down and you will be sold out first day.

snakebite · 2019-10-27T15:46:40.000Z

even in commiefornia there are millions of old gensets with no cat,efi,ect in use.
since many are not kept in tune due to emergency use status the ones that do run are likely to be polluting badly.
after the dayton tornado i saw plenty of bad running units with the choke half on to keep them running.
we ran the shop on a generator a week.
even running at perfect tune it was stinky.
and its a commercial grade honda not some cheap noname.
now think about what the cheapest generator is.
a 2 stroke harbor freight.
after the tornado there were non to be found in stock anywhere around here.wiped off the shelves by folks caught unprepared.
those things are the worst polluters of all.

Couchmaster:

Unfortunately, ^ their actions are contributing significantly to increased CO2 emissions. Everybody and their dog will now be running primarily gas fired generators which have no emission control.

jf_smm · 2019-10-30T21:34:53.000Z

Power was off here from Saturday to Tuesday. I made a few believers around the family. Put about 10 Convoy S2+ around the house for general lighting. Had some warmer tints in the bathroom so the girls could do their make up. Ran my little genny for the fridge and various chargers.

When it was over my wife and daughter were both in love with C8 style lights. My wife even said now I understand about why we have so many lights and batteries. Sweet bit of vindication.

raccoon · 2019-10-30T21:40:53.000Z

We've never had the power out for very long.

It usually doesn't get all that windy here, so I hope SCE doesn't decide to cut our power.

raccoon · 2019-10-31T05:20:52.000Z

raccoon city:

We've never had the power out for very long.

It usually doesn't get all that windy here, so I hope SCE doesn't decide to cut our power.

My memory must be getting bad.

Sometimes we get wind in the 40-50MPH range with gusts in the 70-80MPH range.

The next time that happens, our power just might get cut.

KeepingItLight · 2019-10-31T06:25:14.000Z

I lucked out this time. Power was off for two days over the weekend, but not yesterday. I used the freezer trick Brad described above to verify that the food in my freezer had thawed. This time, I only had two or three things that I had to toss, so cost was minimal.