California May Go Dark This Summer, and Most Aren't Ready (bloomberg.com) 444
schwit1 quotes a report from Bloomberg: A plan by California's biggest utility to cut power on high-wind days during the onrushing wildfire season could plunge millions of residents into darkness. And most people aren't ready. The plan by PG&E comes after the bankrupt utility said a transmission line that snapped in windy weather probably started last year's Camp Fire, the deadliest in state history. While the plan may end one problem, it creates another as Californians seek ways to deal with what some fear could be days and days of blackouts. Some residents are turning to other power sources, a boon for home battery systems marketed by Sunrun, Tesla and Vivint Solar. But the numbers of those systems in use are relatively small when compared with PG&E's 5.4 million customers. Meanwhile, Governor Gavin Newsom said he's budgeting $75 million to help communities deal with the threat. PG&E said the city of Calistoga could have its service cut as many as 15 times this fire season, depending on how extreme the weather is. The utility also plans to set up dozens of so-called "resiliency centers," where backup generators can be brought in to run essential services.
"The utility aims to give at least two days warning about a shutoff and has embarked on a public awareness campaign including mailing letters to customers and is working to identify vulnerable residents," reports Bloomberg. "It also will be working to get power restored in a day after a shutoff, though its customers could be out for as many as five days."
"The utility aims to give at least two days warning about a shutoff and has embarked on a public awareness campaign including mailing letters to customers and is working to identify vulnerable residents," reports Bloomberg. "It also will be working to get power restored in a day after a shutoff, though its customers could be out for as many as five days."
Theater (Score:5, Interesting)
Instead of cutting back trees like they're supposed to, they're going to cut back power because they might otherwise cause fires in those trees.
Kind of like when they did the big rolling blackouts, they were never at full utilization according to their own monitoring systems.
Re:Theater (Score:5, Informative)
Re: Theater (Score:3, Insightful)
You go bankrupt when three idiots don't allow you to cut trees and then make you liable for the ensuing fires. The state government sabotaged PG&E with their virtue signalling. Worse, the fucking retards who voted that government in are now fleeing and fucking up Nevada and Colorado.
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Don't forget Texas. Hell they're even fleeing CA to states further inland and trying to bring their failed policies there.
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In that case there is no problem - everyone there is rich and can just buy their own generators.
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The solar panels I saw had some manufacturing fault - for some reason they did not work at night and their performance was pretty lousy when it's cloudy and especially when it was raining. A proper generator works all the time. And may be cheaper to buy than a lot of solar panels.
Re: Theater (Score:4, Insightful)
Batteries are expensive (20kWh would probably be $5000). And even if they are on standby duty (in a UPS), they degrade over time, with cycle use they degrade much faster. Solar panels are also expensive.
A diesel generator is cheaper, especially if blackouts are not very frequent but may be long (once a year for 24 hours for example).
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I never understood this. The "red states" are the ones who actually deploy renewables the most. Iowa, Texas, etc. That is where the wind power is and increasingly the solar power.
Re: Theater (Score:2)
The red States have more room for it.
Re: Theater (Score:2, Interesting)
Most money making, but broke. Genius.
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https://www.usich.gov/homelessness-statistics/ca/ [usich.gov]
Assholes like you ignore your glaring problems of what high taxes and all your regulations have done to the common citizen.
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Who are those three idiots that don't allow you to cut trees?
I was wondering that, too.
Re: Theater (Score:5, Informative)
There's zero evidence anywhere that the fires and PG&E's bankruptcy have anything to do with environmental regulations. On the contrary, PG&E has been found to be negligent in adhering to their legally required commitment to cut back growth, and is billions of dollars in the black - it decided to pre-emptively declare bankruptcy because it anticipates being found legally liable for billions of dollars from people affected by wildfires... that were caused by PG&E not doing tree maintenance.
But hey, facts before feelings amirite? Except when it deals with anything that liberals can conceivably be bashed for. Welcome to /. anno 2019.
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people affected by wildfires... that were caused by PG&E not doing tree maintenance.
Tree maintenance provided a spark, but it's not the cause for the wildfire. If a huge region is so tinder-dry that a spark destroys everything in an inferno, then blaming the spark is missing the point. What about a lightning strike? Or a guy flicking a cigarette? A car back-firing on the side of the road? A kid playing with magnifying glass? Hell, a terrorist would find unbelievable bang for the buck by traveling to that area and lighting a gas can on fire. You can't stop EVERY possible point of ignition.
Well, there's $75 mil available (Score:2)
Re:Well, there's $75 mil available (Score:5, Informative)
So how money from state coffers should go to paying for the things the utility would nominally have to do? If CA uses tax revenues to ensure PG&Es lines are secure will consumers see discounts on the transmission portion of the bill?
We are having a similar fight in North Western Virginia right now. Dominion wants to build a pipe line to carry natural gas to Richmond. Okay fine but people here don't live in Richmond; most folks whose land will be impacted don't have access to piped natural gas. They won't benefit. Should the state be using eminent domain to enable a private company to build a pipe line which they will privately enjoy the revenue (or at least reduced costs) from? Should the state be able to appropriate property on their behalf, oh sure they pay "market" rates but lets be honest about that too, those rates are determined by appraisers that work for the state, and they don't really consider the long term desirability impact to many of these resorts that previously could boast some of the largest unspoiled wilderness areas on the easy coast for hiking, hunting, camping etc...
I and a lot of other folks might feel differently if it was a "public" good being built like a road we could all use to travel more efficiently or that might reduce congestion on i-81 or something. However this won't help anyone except Domain and I suppose some folks down state might see lower natural gas and electricity rates; fat lot of good it does the people shouldering the cost though.
IMHO we are past the era of "rural electrification" we should deregulate and expect utilities to pay their own way make their own agreements with land owers etc. If they can't then we should be willing to let their market share be taken by technology like off grid solutions, other provides delivering energy by other means. Li batteries are pretty light maybe Tesla can start swapping them like propane canisters for home energy.
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Should the state be using eminent domain to enable a private company to build a pipe line which they will privately enjoy the revenue (or at least reduced costs) from?
Absolutely, that's how utilities have worked since the beginning in the US. They get a legal monopoly and easements in exchange for relatively heavy handed government oversight. There is nothing new or shocking about an eminent domain easement for a utility corridor, it's how every transmission line, pipeline, railroad, etc has been built.
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Fair has nothing to do with it, it's doing what's necessary for the greater good. Decarboning by moving from coal to natural gas is a no-brainer. That's something that's a net benefit to everyone on the planet and requires pipelines to move the natural gas from the point of production to the point of consumption. That necessarily means building new pipeline capacity. Yes, you need to evaluate where that pipeline goes (though MUCH less so than a petroleum pipeline), but it's going to go through someones back
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So how money from state coffers should go to paying for the things the utility would nominally have to do? If CA uses tax revenues to ensure PG&Es lines are secure will consumers see discounts on the transmission portion of the bill?
PGE clearly isn't capable of doing the infrastructure part of the job. Therefore the state should nationalize all the wires, substations, transformers etc. and leave PGE in ownership of their few generation stations as the terms of their bankruptcy. It makes little difference to me whether it's split off into a separate corporation which is prohibited from involvement with generation companies, or owned by the state directly. Either way, it needs to be more tightly regulated, and executive compensation stri
Re:Well, there's $75 mil available (Score:5, Funny)
My primary exposure to state-managed public services is roads. That experience causes me to question if the state should be entrusted with the role of managing a similarly complex electrical grid.
Re:Theater (Score:4, Informative)
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So...you're saying California should start to rake their forests [youtube.com]?
Big like India and Mexico - lots of broke people (Score:2, Interesting)
> So much for 5th largest economy in the world to not be able to afford that which also includes some the highest taxes.
India and Mexico have big economies, similar to California. Big - lots and lots of broke people.
Only those who haven't read the first ten pages of any economics book would brag about their economy being "big" - or someone trying to mislead others who don't know anything about economics.
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Trees are one thing, but grass fires are still a pretty big concern. Beyond a friend asking if he should do a propane generator or batteries, I haven’t been following the Northern California preparations, but hopefully this will help to push to a more resilient microgrid approach.
With a local microgrid, you can easily island from transmission or sub-transmission lines to maintain grid stability. For Calistoga, I would estimate they just need about 6MW of diesel plus ~10-20MWh of battery for a pretty
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they just need about 6MW of diesel plus ~10-20MWh of battery for a pretty resilient system.
Problem: Just moving that power around in a neighborhood through overhead lines can create a fire hazard. It might have been a transmission line (115 or 230 kV) that went down the last time. But a 12 kV local distribution line can trigger a fire just as easily. They need to shut the grid down completely.
Re: Theater (Score:2)
But a 12 kV local distribution line can trigger a fire just as easily.
Isn't that what underground lines are for?
Re: Theater (Score:4, Insightful)
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I've been looking at thermal energy storage options. Bosch make commercial devices that store around 14kWh of energy by heating/cooling water in a tank. Much, much cheaper than batteries but with some limitations.
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The limitation is that you can't convert the stored heat into electricity ... it is only a "storage" for people who need a lot of hot water and get for grid balance reasons the electricity more or less free.
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The heat is converted back to electricity by the same heat pump that warms it up. The system is completely sealed, it doesn't take water in or out.
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This. This kind of stuff is why its so dangerous being a lineman. Sure your crew may have done everything to the book. T's crossed I's dotted. The crew 5 miles away may have fucked up or, some craigs list trunk popper claiming to be an electrician may have come and altered the transfer switch so the homeowner could still use power during an outage. Well now your lines are off, but jittle johnny wants to watch netflix during the power outtage so dad goes and flips the switch the "electrician" installed by th
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Or I don't know just put the power lines under the ground, then they can't snap in high winds and start a fire.
Though one has to wonder did someone fail in their maths? Surely it's not to hard to know what maximum wind speeds are in the area, add a margin and then do some calculations on wind loading, cable spans and cable strength so that the wind won't snap the cables?
I guess the utility company could have been skimping on maintenance and only replacing cables when they fail rather than preventatively.
How
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cable spans and cable strength so that the wind won't snap the cables? ... a no brainer, is it not?
Wind most likely did not snap the cable, but did snap a tree which dropped on the cable
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Underground, they also can't benefit from the convection cooling provided by air - they have to be conduction cooled by e.g. oil, and that is one of the factors that makes high-voltage underground lines up to ten times more expensive than aerial lines.
Re:Theater (Score:5, Informative)
This right here. If you look in the NEC, you will find charts for wire ampacity. It has a few columns. wire size, type(copper/aluminum) and freeair and bundled. The free air ampacity for any given wire is normally 2x that of the bundled/in conduit column. And long distance transmission lines are very high voltage and very high amperage. That's why they are for one so high and for two spaced so far apart. You can normally figure out the voltage range of the transmission wires by looking at height of poles and distance apart.
Source: I'm a 18 year electrician, and was on a fire crew that clear cut trees for HV transmission lines in middle nevada while in prison.
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Re:Theater (Score:5, Insightful)
You don't just cut back through a conifer forest in steep canyons in areas with few roads like it's some east coast city street.
If the area is so inaccessible, they wouldn't have been able to build the power line there in the first place.
Re:"Shanghai" Bill is a known liar many times over (Score:4, Interesting)
Everytime I see a user harassed like this, I mod their post Underrated. Good Luck.
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Where's your credentials as a reliable source of information?
Bill may be a liar, but I have fuck all reason to believe you either.
Helicopters with gigantic saw blades (Score:2)
You just need what the use here in the Appalachians (and some very talented and very crazy pilots).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Re:Theater (Score:5, Funny)
You just need a helicopter and some spray tanks.
Helicopters can cause cancer in California.
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Of course, what's also known is that it is vital - VITAL - to build high-speed rail from Bakersfield to Modesto,
It's only going to make it to Merced, halfway to Modesto. And only $10billion. So, you know.
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If they do, can I sue them if I get cancer?
That's a really good question. Hopefully you don't.
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You just need a helicopter and some spray tanks.
Helicopters can cause cancer in California.
I thought that was wind turbines, or is it just any spinny thing?
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So fly them in from a state where they don't cause cancer!
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aww did the joke hurt your feelings? grow up.
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If only electrical equipment could somehow be dug into the ground where it won't catch anything on fire.
Instead California built a fraction of a high speed train that travels between places no one goes.
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The cable installation, and ongoing losses, are paid for by the electric company. However, they can duck out of liability for the fires by filing bankruptcy. That penalty is on the government.
As the parent said, underground transmission lines are very, very expensive to build. They also have lower efficiency due to ongoing inductive losses between the lines and to the surrounding earth. To reduce the losses, they have to be big, with lots of spa
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Finland does groom [heartland.org] their forest cuts, removing all the flammable waste...
Completely different ecology and forestry practices, something which someone like an Orange Chimp would completely ignore in his idiot comparisons between the forest ecology of a long standing farmed pine plantation. CALIFORNIA on the other hand does not have tree plantation that are groomed on the best bottom lands with easy fire control access. The Finish and Swedish tree farms are a completely different ecology that is so different from the mountain ecology of California where the wild fires run rampant.
Re:Theater (Score:5, Insightful)
No but you could put the power line underground then you would not need to worry about trees falling on it.
Re:Theater (Score:5, Informative)
https://www.elp.com/articles/powergrid_international/print/volume-18/issue-2/features/underground-vs-overhead-power-line-installation-cost-comparison-.html/ [elp.com]
Scroll down to where it says "Cost Differentials", read the following breakdowns of cost differences by topic. Then get back to us.
Re:Theater (Score:5, Informative)
A traditional three wire, three phase, AC transmission line, will have inductive loss between the lines and to the surrounding earth. We reduce that with larger spacing. However to match the efficiency of an aerial transmission line, the tunnel would have to be several meters in diameter. That really drives up the cost.
A newer DC transmission line only requires one wire. It has a high capacitance to ground. In use, that mostly helps smooth transitions. During maintenance, it needs to be drained. However, you need very expensive electronic switching gear at each end. There is no cheap DC equivalent of the transformer. A DC line also needs an even higher voltage, or a three times bigger conductor, to carry the same amount of power. That higher voltage makes the insulation break down even faster. The more complicated switching gear breaks down more often then a traditional transformer.
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Some power companies let you put your central air on a reduced cost line, in exchange for letting the power company cut it off for up to 2 hours per day.
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Thats when I would install a transfer switch with a circuit from the main panel, to have it kick back on in those "up to 2 hours per day" times. Win Win.
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Which was the worst decision ever. Tried that when I lived outside MPLS. The only time they ever cut it off was when it was 95 degrees on the prairie with no breeze, in the noon time sun.
In other words those hours when you least desired your A/C to be shut off.
Nice first world country you have there America (Score:5, Funny)
Nice first world country you have there America
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Re:Nice first world country you have there America (Score:5, Insightful)
The forests there were mismanaged for years without cali gov doing what is needed
This is what happens when you have an enormous rural state (only Texas and Alaska are bigger), with all the political power in a few urban metropolises full of people that learned about forest management by watching Bambi [wikipedia.org].
Re:Nice first world country you have there America (Score:5, Funny)
with all the political power in a few urban metropolises full of people that learned about forest management by watching Bambi
I learned all I know about wildlife management by watching Bambi meets Godzilla [wikipedia.org].
Re:Nice first world country you have there America (Score:5, Informative)
Its California, its a super majority liberal run state. Corruption and mismanagement of funds...
"America's largest state economy is California, which produced $2.75 trillion of economic output in 2017, more than the United Kingdom's GDP last year of $2.62 trillion. Consider this: California has a labor force of 19.3 million compared to the labor force in the UK of 33.8 million (World Bank data here)."
California also provides more public infrastructure and such than say many other states do, in particular with how it relates to popular cities and such. That infrastructure does increase the cost per capita, but it also helps bring in and retain the best people. I'm of course not saying California is perfect, just that it clearly isn't doing that badly, though it does need to improve on its debt,
Basically the only thing in your post that seemed reasonable was the likely hood of forest mismanagement. Guess what, you don't really get to call liberalism a failure cause one area in one state was mismanaged. Hell look what Von Clownstick is doing to this country? Do we get to call republicanism a failure because of him? Come to think of it, that seems a good idea.
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That's fine but don't confuse the efforts of entrepeneurs with government policies. They sell to the US and world but choose to live there.
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You know you can mod me down all you want but its not going to change the fact that I'm right. Maybe instead of trying to shout down everyone that doesn't agree with your world view, you should listen to what is being said every now and then.
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Well if you are a US citizen then he is your Orange Overlord too. But to be fair the issues in California started long before he took office. California was well on its way to becoming the cluster fuck it is back in the 90's. Granted, he hasn't exactly done much to help the issue.
Re:Nice first world country you have there America (Score:4)
California actually cause more problems than it solves. The homeless and drug use tops the list.
You really didn't solve any emissions problems till it was forced on you to do so. So that doesn't count for anything. You have to do something voluntarily for it to count.
As for California producing most of the US food, that is also a myth. California only accounts for 13% of the US food production. The only reason that California produces that much at all is because most of the water comes from surrounding states to do this. In the overall balance of food production California does add a good bit but its no where as much as you think it does.
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No, you did it because the air quality in LA was so bad it was barely breathable. You didn't do it because it was simply a good thing. You did it because you had no choice.
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And yet people are dying to move here! If they can just get their game up to our standards; if they can find some little place they can afford on their out-of-state income. Our massive financial surplus, built up during the years of recession, seems to be an overlooked bonus that will guarantee energy, water and improved transportation for another generation.
Yes California is a terrible place to live. Tell your friends and stay away.
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Lets make a list of problems with modern society and see if California is a major source:
Political divisiveness: Check.
Tribalism: Check.
Wealth stratification: Check.
Abusive company practices: Check.
Denial of basic science like vaccinations: Check.
Consumerism: Check.
Conspicuous consumption: Check.
Wasteful water usage: Check.
Bad infrastructure: Check. That's what this story is about after all.
Wasteful power usage: Check. Same.
Abuse of developing nations for manufacture: Check.
Abuse of developing nations for r
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The solution, at a minimum, is the banning of "in the future" promises to public unions, because the people of the future did not elect the people negotiating today, and in fact the people actually on the hook for the current unfunded liability werent even born when these unfunded liabilities were introduced, and did not benefi
yet one of the richest and most productive state (Score:4, Insightful)
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Detroit has been a liberal stronghold for generations. The state as a whole is very much moderate, thus the focus during the last election; Michigan was one of the few that could have gone either way.
The road problem has to do with frequent freeze-thaw cycles combined with large amounts of water. Same goes for the area-limited water problems due to piping wear and tear. They are very isolated and it would be a lie to extrapolate that to the whole state. There's millions of Californians drinking bottled wate
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Wrong. Renting in SF, at 100% of the median costs [sfmohcd.org], as a couple, you can earn up to about $100K and qualify for assistance. Higher - like Nob Hill - and you're up to $120,700 for a single person. You can make over $10,000 per month - and get housing assistance.
That right there sounds like a system in full working order,
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The only first world thing in America are their carriers and the planes on them ...
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I'm getting tired of not winning.
Re:Nice first world country you have there America (Score:4, Interesting)
Who ever modded you as a troll is probably from California. Which would be an example of another problem with the state. The total denial of reality, specifically the reality that there is something wrong in California. Those of us who are looking in from the outside clearly see the problem. High homelessness, rampant drug use, financial irresponsibility, gross mismanagement of infrastructure, fleeing middle class. I really could go on and on but I think you get the point.
But the people in California are more than happy to walk around with their heads in the clouds. Then you can't understand why the rest of the country looks down on you. You want to know the real reason Trump won the election? It was because the rest of us looked at the liberal "paradise" that California has become and we decided we would rather have a orange narcissistic jackass in the Whitehouse than take a chance and become like California.
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Then you can't understand why the rest of the country looks down on you.
I wasn't looking down on you, until I read that. Then I smiled.
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Well it could have something to do with the fact that soup kitchens serve sea bass and risotto and you can panhandle $200/day.
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soup kitchens serve sea bass and risotto
That alone is enough to make me want to work a shitty job and not be homeless..
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CA is 3/4 of the US economy, you're a moron.
This is completely false
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CA get's back $0.99 of every dollar it pays in taxes. Yeah, 1 fucking cent (per dollar) goes to the country as a whole. But if you think California (where I live) is supporting the other states, you're a goddamn math retard.
One fucking cent per dollar, spread out over 49 states, a couple of territories, and a handful of overseas possessions, works out to jack all.
You still on about your 3/4 bullshit? How the fuck does the 8th largest economy represent 3/4th of the 1st largest economy? You went to public s
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I think they're right between Trans-spacial and Trans-Spasal.
Re: Nice first world country you have there Americ (Score:2, Interesting)
FWIW, the fda refuses to inspect horse meat, and meat needs to be inspected by the fda. So horse meat is effectively illegal throughout the USA.
MBAs in control. More losers. (Score:5, Informative)
Instead, these MBAs have been paying themselves massive bonuses, profits, all to keep stock prices high.
Bear in mind that in America, the utilities are supposed to keep the lines up and power flowing.
Oddly enough, CA is requiring that utilities buy storage (predominately batteries), and use it as back-ups. Great, but it does NO GOOD, if you bring the grid down. If these utilities had regular ppl in control and not idiot MBAs, they would follow Vermont's plan. Basically, the utility will pay something like 1/3 to 1/2 of the cost of a building's battery, and they are allowed to use it during normal times. They can store energy from night time, or if the building has solar, then store from local side. However, when electricity is not flowing in the grid, then battery provides back-up to the building. Not a bad deal. The utility gets double the storage, while the buildings get a back up system.
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Surprised Pikachu (Score:2, Insightful)
This is the United States Of America we are talking about here? A country that spends 686 Trillion dollars a year on "defense"? And you cannot afford to bury your powerlines and have to turn the power off randomly when the wind blows?
Suckers.
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Try $800 Billion a year on Defense. A sense of proportion is critical modern life.
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I'm curious. What country spends $800B on Defense? The USA only manages about 2/3 that (according to the Federal Budget numbers), and I always thought we spent more of the military than anyone else....
How not to need resiliency centers (Score:2)
2. That builds the understanding of energy use and demand every year.
3. Institutional understanding of the weather and power demands.
4. Build a grid that can keep the power on in "summer". "Summer" is not an unexpected and new event in CA.
5. Not got enough power? Build more generation capacity.
6. Got way too much "free" power due to wind and solar? Why?
7. Big battery project not doing what it should? Why?
8. A grid should be ready for "summer" every
Greed (Score:5, Insightful)
For 14 years in the 1950s and 60s, PG&E dumped 370 million gallons of chromium-tainted wastewater into dirt-bottomed ponds around the city of Hinkley, CA. They did it because they didn't want to pay for proper disposal. They didn't tell anyone they had done this until 1987, claiming that they had just found out about it. This was because people were starting to figure out why they becoming sick and PG&E hoped to nip the issue in the bud, buy people out of their properties and give them some medical care hoping they wouldn't sue. When that failed, they spent years in court trying to prevent people they had sickened and killed from getting compensation. The movie Erin Brockovich is a basic retelling of what happened. They went so far as to falsify studies of the toxicity of hexachromium to humans and delay legislation to improve the quality of drinking water so they wouldn't be forced to pay for the damage they had done.
The 2018 Paradise fire was caused by a failed power transmission line on a 99-year-old tower. Several of the towers had been damaged during high winds in 2012. Instead of replacing all of them they only made as many repairs as needed to get power flowing again and did "visual inspections" of the remaining towers. This inspection did not require a single person to actually climb any of the towers and make sure they weren't falling apart. In fact, they knew the tower was about to fail as they had called the owner of a nearby property to tell them they were going to be working on it a day before the fire. Did they cut the power to the tower? Of course not! That would give them a PR black eye. Meanwhile, the tower was already 24 years past its 'useful life' of 75 years but PG&E had no plans in motion to replace it. PG&E was also on track to make over 1 billion dollars in net profit for 2018 if it weren't for not one, but two fires caused by them.
Old PG&E or new PG&E, they are just a bunch of greedy scumbags doing their best to compensate themselves and the shareholders. They aren't a power and gas company, they are a profit generator. First and foremost they exist to make the maximum amount of money they can get away with. Not a moral profit, not a nice profit, not an 'everybody wins' profit, profit above and to the exclusion of all else. Safety, reliability, and customer satisfaction be damned. If they could generate a profit for burning down orphanages there wouldn't be a single one left standing.
Trees and winds? (Score:2)
Why not force the utilities to put their wires in the ground? - There no wind can blow them into trees or start fires.
Yes, it is possible. Here in Denmark more than 98% of all power lines are in the ground, from residential supply to major trunk lines. Yes, it costs more money but electrical power is not much more expensive here so it evens out.
Sure, dumb contractors sometimes don't bother reading the maps and dig into them and then they learn their lesson the hard way.
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Here in Denmark more than 98% of all power lines are in the ground,
Is Denmark on a fault line?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
provide for yourself (Score:2)
it has become more clear throughout the years that we can no longer count on utilities to provide the whole population the whole time.
electricity is a problem, with shortages when demand is high and ever increasing prices.
water is also getting into problems with long dry periods or with quality issues.
however, we have never had so much possibilities to provide these for ourself as in the last years. it's easy to provide your own electricity and it's not much harder to produce drinking water. it will only be
Sell logging rights (Score:2)
Sell the logging rights to the PG&E rights-of-way to ambitious companies, with the stipulation that they follow guidelines to clear the brush as well as trees.
Maybe I'm batshit (Score:3)
Also on the actual topic, the idea of turning off the power to avoid this issue is sort of like cutting of your hand to avoid splinters.
Serious advice (Score:5, Informative)
If you live in that area & have natural gas available... spend the extra cash & get a natural-gas generator, or a diesel generator with tank large enough to hold a week's worth of fuel.
As someone who spent almost 4 weeks without power after Hurricane Wilma, and 8 days after Irma, I can tell you... regular gas generators SUCK. a 6.5kW generator running 2 window AC units (central AC is too big), refrigerator, and the usual lights & appliances (excluding the dryer... too big) burns through 10-20 gallons PER DAY, and gets expensive REALLY fast. They also need constant maintenance to avoid having the (unleaded) gas turn into varnish in the tank. Did I mention spending hours in line to buy gas, and driving home with a de-facto bomb in the trunk?
Seriously, get one that burns natural gas, LPG, or diesel. You'll be glad you did. And if it's LPG... you NEED a large buried tank. Grill-sized tanks are NOT adequate, and will BANKRUPT you (and only run the generator for 3-7 hours, max).
Also, if blackouts will be common, spend the extra for a proper subpanel & cut-over switch. A large generator has two 120v "legs", each of which need to draw approximately equal amounts of power. If one leg is drawing 3000W & the other is drawing 50, your generator works HARDER than if it has two equal 2000W loads.
To a generator, inductive loads (motors, electronics, etc) "look" like a much bigger load than a resistive (stove, incandescent light, etc) load of the same nominal wattage. And things like compressors (AC, refrigerator) draw about twice as much power when starting.
Finally... forget about trying to use a UPS with a generator. It almost NEVER works, due to the stupid way most UPS'es judge the quality of line power. You'll just end up with the UPS thrashing between battery & generator power until the battery finally dies. This applies to nearly ALL generators & UPSes, including "enterprise" ones.
Re: (Score:2)
- California might ban or heavily tax the fuel you're using.
- California might ban or heavily tax fuel delivery (for propane or diesel).
- California might ban or tax owning a generator.
- California might ban or tax using a generator for residential power
- California might tax the CO2 coming
Re:Generators make sense (Score:5, Insightful)
That's a brilliant idea. Let's run thousands of individual generators during winds storms. Doubtless all those generators will be carefully maintained and properly operated and become the cause of absolutely no fires, because Californians are paragons of responsibility and mindfulness in all things.
Re:California == Third World Country (Score:5, Insightful)
The trend is towards a third world country not only for California but for the whole US.
High income increases while the bottom level incomes stays the same. Large difference in income leads to a lot of tensions as well.
https://www.advisorperspective... [advisorperspectives.com]