Texas's system has had problems like this before. I think the applicable saying is "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."
IMO, the most awesome aspect of this time of change in the power grid is the rising availability of options to go off grid. Solar + battery is near competitive now. If you factor in the true cost of grid failures, perhaps it is more than competitive.
We have the same issue in Florida. Here, hurricanes have taken out power to large regions for as long as a week at least t
When you can’t put underground lines above sea level (preferrably above mean high tide), you don’t end up magically improving availability, as time to repair is higher and failure rates are not dramatically lower.
If the poles and insulators can withstand the winds and other hazards it is actually a pretty good solution.
Hawaii has huge issues with underground circuits; average annual temperature and pests might be a part of the equation. Water salinity is also lower in Northern Europe, but not sure if that really has as much impact.
When you can’t put underground lines above sea level (preferrably above mean high tide), you don’t end up magically improving availability, as time to repair is higher and failure rates are not dramatically lower.
If the poles and insulators can withstand the winds and other hazards it is actually a pretty good solution.
Ever been in a Cat-4/Cat-5 hurricane? Those poles and insulators CANNOT withstand a direct hit. Also, putting underground lines in Florida is already a solved problem. I live in Weston, right next to the Everglades and pretty much most of our power, telephone and cable lines are underground. Same with every new construction/community.
The mean-time to failure of an underground, corrosion-resistant cable is a lot longer than the mean-time to failure due to a Cat-4 hurricane, just FYI.
I'm 40 miles from the sea in Central Florida. My 33 year old neighborhood with 165 homes has its lines underground. To my knowledge and the knowledge of neighbors I've spoken with who have been here the whole 33 years, none of those lines has ever failed. The 150 yard long section of line feeding the neighborhood is not underground and has failed three times in just the last six years - all due to tree strikes. In two of those three cases, it took a week for the crews to get to it because they had so many d
$0.10 a kWh, that's why. Sure, we could double or triple our bills and have 99.9% reliability but instead of an extra $1000 a year on my bill I will spend $750 for a generator for the once every 10 years my power is out for more then a few hours.
I am 68 and I can only remember one state wide week long outage in my life time. It is just not worth spending hundreds of billions of dollars hurricane proofing the entire grid.
everyone who depends on the system (Score:5, Informative)
Texas's system has had problems like this before. I think the applicable saying is "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."
IMO, the most awesome aspect of this time of change in the power grid is the rising availability of options to go off grid. Solar + battery is near competitive now. If you factor in the true cost of grid failures, perhaps it is more than competitive.
We have the same issue in Florida. Here, hurricanes have taken out power to large regions for as long as a week at least t
Re:everyone who depends on the system (Score:3)
When you can’t put underground lines above sea level (preferrably above mean high tide), you don’t end up magically improving availability, as time to repair is higher and failure rates are not dramatically lower.
If the poles and insulators can withstand the winds and other hazards it is actually a pretty good solution.
Re: (Score:3)
When you can’t put underground lines above sea level (preferrably above mean high tide)
Why, are they somehow not waterresistant ? I don't think denmark/the netherlands/belgum/... has that problem
Re: (Score:3)
Hawaii has huge issues with underground circuits; average annual temperature and pests might be a part of the equation. Water salinity is also lower in Northern Europe, but not sure if that really has as much impact.
Re: (Score:2)
When you can’t put underground lines above sea level (preferrably above mean high tide), you don’t end up magically improving availability, as time to repair is higher and failure rates are not dramatically lower.
If the poles and insulators can withstand the winds and other hazards it is actually a pretty good solution.
Ever been in a Cat-4/Cat-5 hurricane? Those poles and insulators CANNOT withstand a direct hit. Also, putting underground lines in Florida is already a solved problem. I live in Weston, right next to the Everglades and pretty much most of our power, telephone and cable lines are underground. Same with every new construction/community.
The mean-time to failure of an underground, corrosion-resistant cable is a lot longer than the mean-time to failure due to a Cat-4 hurricane, just FYI.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm 40 miles from the sea in Central Florida. My 33 year old neighborhood with 165 homes has its lines underground. To my knowledge and the knowledge of neighbors I've spoken with who have been here the whole 33 years, none of those lines has ever failed. The 150 yard long section of line feeding the neighborhood is not underground and has failed three times in just the last six years - all due to tree strikes. In two of those three cases, it took a week for the crews to get to it because they had so many d
Re: (Score:2)
$0.10 a kWh, that's why. Sure, we could double or triple our bills and have 99.9% reliability but instead of an extra $1000 a year on my bill I will spend $750 for a generator for the once every 10 years my power is out for more then a few hours.
I am 68 and I can only remember one state wide week long outage in my life time. It is just not worth spending hundreds of billions of dollars hurricane proofing the entire grid.