After Recent US Storms, Why Are Millions Still Without Power? 813
Hugh Pickens points out a report from Jamie Smith Hopkins that "The unusual nature of the 'derecho' is complicating efforts to get everyone's much-needed air conditioning up and running again as more than 1.4 million people from Illinois to Virginia still remain without power and power companies warn some customers could be without power for the rest of the week in the worst hit areas. Utilities don't have enough staff to handle severe-storm outages – the expense would send rates soaring – so they rely on out-of-state utilities to send help, says Stephen Woerner, Baltimore Gas and Electric's (BGE) chief operating officer. Hurricane forecasts offer enough advanced warning for utilities to 'pre-mobilize' and get the out-of-state assistance in place but the forecast for Friday's walloping wind was merely scattered thunderstorms. 'No utility was prepared for what we saw in terms of having staff available that first day,' says Woerner. But is it a given that a strong storm would cause this magnitude of damage to the electricity grid? 'Even without pursuing the extremely expensive option of burying all of the region's electrical lines, the utilities can and do take steps between bouts of severe weather to prevent outages,' writes the Baltimore Sun, adding that consumer advocates are concerned that utilities invest sufficiently in preventive maintenance. 'Tree trimming and replacement of old infrastructure — particularly in areas that have been shown to be vulnerable to previous storms — helps prevent outages.'"
The infrastructure is significantly behind (Score:3, Informative)
Trim the fucking trees (Score:5, Informative)
I sat in on a town hall meeting where JCP&L fumbled majorly in explaining themselves after taking a week or more to restore power in northern NJ. They gave all manner of excuses, and the meeting attendees pointed out endless examples of dead branches hanging over wires. Their policy? Then don't touch the branch unless the branch is *hanging* on the wire. How's that for foresight? The moment a strong wind kicks up, they lose power. They're so fucking cheap that they fired all their linemen, and now out-of-state emergency support has become the ONLY support.
Shame on them.
Re:Wires (Score:5, Informative)
I completely agree here... When I moved back to Europe in 94 they were in full swing moving power cables from above ground to below ground. Now in 2012 it is rare to see an above ground house to house power cable... With most of them, outside of the big distributor cables, underground it is also nicer looking as there are no more power lines.
For comparison... (Score:4, Informative)
For comparison, our computers have reset unexpectedly twice (iirc) in the past 12 years. I assume that both times it was due to a short power-blip. No other outages that I recall. I think occasionally about buying a UPS, but I'm not sure the UPS wouldn't actually decrease the reliability.
The difference is exactly what you expect: all power wires here are buried. Heck, our house was built in 1934, and the wires were buried. Why does the US still string them up on poles, almost a century later? Weird...
Re:visited to USA recently (Score:2, Informative)
...and your entire continent is bankrupt.
Re:Because of Privatization (Score:5, Informative)
"...recent Public Service Commission investigation of Pepco found a years-long pattern of shirking such maintenance (curiously, at the same time that the company was paying its stockholders healthy dividends). The commission handed down a $1 million fine, its largest ever, for what it called a pattern of neglect. "
Moron...
Re:visited to USA recently (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Air conditioning? Open a window. (Score:4, Informative)
Why are Americans so obsessed with air conditioning?
Because their summer climate is crap. When you've got temperatures around 100F and humidity over 90%, you become very keen on air conditioning.
Re:Without power? (Score:5, Informative)
> Seriously, though, it seems to me that infrastructure spending is one of those no-brainer things that shouldn't even be a question.
Of course it's a question; why should it be any different just because it's "infrastructure?" If there is demand for it, let the free-market provide it... nothing dictates that "infrastructure" be provided by some entity that maintains a monopoly on the use of force. Note too that "free market" includes voluntarily assembled co-operatives and communes. Communal activity for common good is one thing... forced participation in some initiative, at the point of a gun barrel, is something quite different.
Except that utilities are a regulated industry so free market doesn't apply.
Re:visited to USA recently (Score:4, Informative)
So is ours.
Re:Without power? (Score:4, Informative)
They can get smashed, but there are some types of panels that are resistant to such damage, and can even be repaired (a little solder to fix any broken connections and a new glass sheet over the top should be more than enough).
And individual merely needs to weigh the costs of having occasional/extraordinarily rare outages like this against the costs of the system.
Re:Why? You have to ask why? (Score:5, Informative)
It's because we never bother to maintain our infrastructure. We build bridges and let 'em fall down. We hang power lines off wooden poles, and never bother burying them. We sort of fix it when it breaks, but then it breaks again, but we don't really learn from it.
While what you say is true, the real problem this time was that the utilities were caught off guard. When they know a major storm, particularly something with hurricane strength winds, is coming, they marshal their resources ahead of time. Normally for a hurricane they have a week or so to prepare for it and to have extra crews and equipment on stand-by for the repairs/clean up. But this storm came without warning and therefore they are having to repair and marshal resources at the same time. Add to that the problem that most of the states that loan equipment and workers to the east coast for this type of work were also hit by the same storm.
In the end, while improving infrastructure is a needed thing, it isn't the cause of this delay in getting power back on.
Re:Dilapidated infrastructure? (Score:5, Informative)
and have more vacation, live longer and are happier.
Re:Without power? (Score:3, Informative)
When the economy hit the black water tank in 2008, China made a stimulus package. It didn't just go to replacing cars either.
They spent money adding airports, roads, rail, laying fiber, even adding chip factories so they can fab their own stuff if need be.
It has helped their economy immensely. Their factories are highly competitive because their government and business cooperate. They can get raw materials to where they need to go on a scale that couldn't be matched here in the states due to the government being told not to do it, and the private sector uninterested in funding it.
Re:Pipelining (Score:3, Informative)
As such the USA is losing its grid to a very finely tuned profit machine that has no instinct for self preservation. Everything is now and nothing is tomorrow.
That's not true at all. After the utilities refused to do the repair and maintenance they were paid for by consumers, they then went to congress for additional funding. Congress happily granted massive upcharges and taxes for to perform the repairs they refused to do the first time and had already been paid for. As a result, the utilities took the extra cash and tax revenue and refused to do the work a second time. They are now lobbying for a new round of taxes, rate increases, and grants to perform the work they've already refused to do so twice.
Basically, the utilities companies have become massive fraud machines whereby their instinct for self preservation entirely hinges on corrupt politics and dumb consumers who refuse to hold them accountable for what is litterally fraud. Of course Congress doesn't do anything about because of the massive bribes paid to them to allow this fraud in the first place.
No ifs, ands, or buts, they absolutely do have a plan and its working wonderfully.
Re:visited to USA recently (Score:4, Informative)
Well, as an european I would call it typical US that you conclude from one particular third world country, that you had visited, on all of them :D
Especially from one event alone.
We here in europe call the USA a third world country with a first world army. Thats why you are considered so dangerous.
Re:visited to USA recently (Score:5, Informative)
There are also geographic issues as well. East of Houston to Florida is swamp. Good luck burying anything there. There is a reason why Louisiana is known for its elaborate crypts and morgues. There is just no way to bury the dead, so they have to remain above ground.
The US is a very disparate country. Some places the cities are as safe as Europe (Seattle, Portland, and chunks of NYC.) Other places, not so much. One of the main reason why some cities are burying cables now is because overhead lines tend to be a target for metal thieves so they can get their next meth fix.
Re:visited to USA recently (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Beacon Power (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Air conditioning? Open a window. (Score:4, Informative)
It's not critical to normal, healthy adults in a resting state, but when the heat index hits 105 to 130 F (40-55C), the sick, elderly, and those performing physical labor start dying. I'd wager that over 50% of the deaths attributed to this storm are due to heat-related illness.
Re:Beacon Power (Score:5, Informative)
PLEASE PLEASE buy a real transfer switch. It will only add another couple of hundreds of dollars, but prevents the backfeed from killing the guy trying to fix your power.
More like $300-$400 US for the switch, an additional $300-$400 US to get a qualified electrician to install it properly, and $50-$100 for the proper permits. YMMV of course based on location.
Having said that, it is something you really should do if you are going to connect a generator to your house wiring in any way, shape, or form. To expand a bit, a transfer switch connects your house wiring to your generator's power while at the same time disconnecting your house wiring from your power company's feed. If you don't disconnect from the power company, power from your generator can back feed onto the pole and ultimately down the line to where a lineman might be working. At best the lineman will detect that the line is still live and it will take time to track down your feed. At worst he could be electrocuted. No matter what, switching your house systems to generator power should automatically disconnect those systems from the public utility. If it takes two separate actions then one of them can be forgotten and someone can get hurt or killed.
Re:Dilapidated infrastructure? (Score:4, Informative)
Sweden just didn't really have a lot of modern infrastructure until post-WW2, especially outside Stockholm. The first metro system in the country opened in 1950, for example. The road system was so undeveloped as late as the 1960s that they were able to change from left-hand to right-hand driving [wikipedia.org] in 1967 without a lot of expense (it would've been a lot worse if they had motorways whose on/off-ramps had to be replaced). The national power grid was only completed in the 1940s. And so on.
Re:Pipelining (Score:5, Informative)
Coops and Municipal utilities are nearly entirely exempted from deregulation, and run much the same as they did in the 1930s.
In any event, this storm is a good natural test of your hypothesis: some of the affected states (Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey) are entirely deregulated, and some (West Virginia, Tennessee, the Carolina) are traditionally regulated. Virginia is somewhere in the middle.
Re:Why? You have to ask why? (Score:4, Informative)
if millions are without power for a week it's more likely something to do with transmission towers
Nope, it's tens of thousands of trees down [cnn.com] across several states. Crews can only clean up so many per day.
Re:Dilapidated infrastructure? (Score:5, Informative)
Telecom network designer here. I can't vouch for power companies, but as far as communications lines, it really is that much cheaper to put them up a pole that you already own or a paying a pittance of a lease for then to bury them & have to deal with:
a.) Design. The poles are already there & in some instance they are maintained by a different company entirely. Locating existing UG utilities is expensive. Some counties in Florida are now requiring GPR readings before they let you place anything. Ground penetrating radar &/ or LiDAR crews are expensive.
b.) Permits (Railroad, DOT, City, County, & sometimes bridge or Dept of Environmental Protection) And they all want something different on their permits.
b.) Construction. Most companies contract out boring. Directional boring rigs aren't cheap to run. Conduit is more expensive to place than the metal strand that goes between poles. It's quite literally 4 times more expensive to place UG plant than aerial plant & that is before the before the cost of the above items is taken into consideration.
Also, you really can't compare Europe to the USA. Europe is tiny & crammed. We are very, very spread out. Case in point, the *city* I live in is just slightly smaller than Luxembourg.
Re:early 20th century infrastructure (Score:3, Informative)
If electricity is essential to your daily life, you might want to seriously consider changing your life. I definitely appreciate the convenience of electricity, and I wouldn't get a whole lot of work done if it went out for an extended period of time, but my life certainly wouldn't be in danger, and I'd even be entertained.
Re:Why? You have to ask why? (Score:4, Informative)
"Our problem, why so many customers are out, this one damaged over 50 large transmission lines and 70 substations." - http://wvgazette.com/News/201207010139 [wvgazette.com]
http://www.dailymail.com/News/201207020077 [dailymail.com] for pretty picture
Re:Dilapidated infrastructure? (Score:4, Informative)
Despite not being bombed, we quite constantly upgraded our infrastructure during the last 60 years.