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.'"
Why? You have to ask why? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Pipelining (Score:5, Insightful)
Utility rate regulation is a system of assuring the investors of their return in return for doing something the public wants done. US Utility Rate Regulation used to be aimed at making sure that the maximum generation capacity was present with adequate return for lines and repairs etc. Under the George W Bush administration this regulation shifted towards "Pipeline" design for power sales. This stripped the local Coop or supply company of its revenue for service and maintainence. Further changes in regulation changed the position of the large generators so that they have little or no incentive to build new facilities. 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. The result is that the USA is fast sinking into a 3rd world power grid with massive failures and stunningly stupid management. The power rating system optimizes the push towards insufficient demand and planned brownouts. The 1930's regulation design caused the largest expansion and most robust utility system in the world. The 2000's are seeing this systematically dismantled in favor of "deregulation" which in this case is a farce because the regulation exists this is only a matter of how it is designed.
visited to USA recently (Score:1, Insightful)
I am not from USA but visited there recently for business.
I was really astonished by how it seems to be a third world country in terms of infrastructure. The power lines are not buried, they are just haphazardly strung up on big poles all over so they are acceptable to being knocked by winds or damaged by lighting. But it goes much further. There is no usable public transit system, and what there is smells of urine and feels highly dangerous. Even the internet is slow and expensive compared to modern countries. It felt like visiting a country stuck in the past and unwilling to join the present.
If millions are without power after a storm, it is because they did not join with modern nations in protecting their power infrastructure.
Frequency is troubling (Score:5, Insightful)
As someone who was without power from Friday night to yesterday afternoon in Maryland (served by BG&E), I get that this was bad storm and outages are probably inevitable. My problem is: Why are there so many of these outages?
I moved to my current residence in 2006 and there have been at least 4 outages lasting longer than 24 hours. I think I'm missing one in that count, but I didn't want to put it down without remembering it better. But we've had one of these 24+ hour outages each of the last three years.
When I step outside during an outage, I'm greeted with the sound of generators all around me (including my own, but it's quiet enough that I hear several others over it). Why do we all have generators? Because we need them so frequently! I bet if I did a poll, half the neighbors would either have a generator or have power from someone that does. And a good portion of the rest probably have friends or family far enough that they might have power, but near enough to make staying at their place feasible.
Meanwhile...my water works fine. My natural gas service works fine - we were able to take hot showers throughout the outage. My FiOS worked fine after I hooked it to the generator. All of those things have one thing in common: the lines are buried. It's sad that my internet service is more reliable than my electricity. If it's so expensive to bury wires, how come Verizon just did it a couple years ago when they installed FiOS?
BG&E did a "reliability improvement plan" in our city a year or two ago, moving some main wires underground. It seems to have cut down on the shorter power outages, but no such luck for the longer outages. We're tired of it. My wife and I are going to write BG&E a nice letter that basically asks "WTF?" I plan to CC the city council and local papers as well.
Big deal (Score:2, Insightful)
Nature happens. You guys are knee'jerk reacting. Next story.
Re:Beacon Power (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, let's spend trillions for that extra 1% uptime instead of just let the people who absolutely have to have emergency power buy an inexpensive generator.
Re:Without power? (Score:4, Insightful)
Which would require multiple utility corridors all of which would need to be maintained, twice as many "unsightly" poles and twice the cost of running the service in the first place - read higher lot prices, twice the maintenance work to keep the trees cut back, twice as many unhappy homeowners as their trees that they planted to close to the right of way are cut back - "I didn't know it would grow that high!", lots of isolation and distribution stations where even more things could go wrong, and you'd still be at the same risk when a big storm hit.
If you don't like the situation, buy a big diesel generator and wire it in. Then have a big storage tank of diesel close by.
Re:Dilapidated infrastructure? (Score:5, Insightful)
unlike europe that has gone to war with each other every 50 years or so for the last 1000 years, the US hasn't been bombed. in some cases there has never been a reason to build new infrastructure like in the bombed out post WW2 remains of europe
Because maintaining power grids is hard. (Score:3, Insightful)
Seriously. Look at a map for any densely populated urban area, and consider the scale and complexity any utility provider must face. The problem is enormous and the adverse conditions affecting the utility are highly varied. Also consider that it makes no sense for these utility providers to retain standing armies of workers and equipment to react to rare events.
People need to grow up, and understand that sometimes they will be left without the conveniences of modern life. It is incumbent upon each of us to be prepared for these difficult times when we might have to go a full 48 hours without being able to watch The Bachelorette.
Re:The infrastructure is significantly behind (Score:3, Insightful)
Where is the $$ for change?
Harvested by the already rich?
Re:Without power? (Score:4, Insightful)
Remember - government spending is bad. REGARDLESS of the outcome for us. Government spending = taxes, and as everyone knows, this country was founded on three principles:
1.God is in heaven, satan is in hell, and we are a Christian nation.
2. I have the right to own any firearm I wish, up to and including napalm.
3. TAXATION??? This country isn't designed to have taxes. Why should I have to pay for YOUR roads and YOUR power and YOUR schools? Socialist pig.
Seriously, though, it seems to me that infrastructure spending is one of those no-brainer things that shouldn't even be a question.
Re:visited to USA recently (Score:2, Insightful)
You can't say all that without specifying what part of the USA you had visited. The United States, when it comes to area, is almost as big as all of Europe and, thus, creating a reliable infrastructure is a harder job than it is in Europe. You have to think in terms of scale, cost, and time/manpower required. Kneejerk responses are not what's needed. You can't criticize without first figuring out exactly what is needed and how it can be reasonably ("reasonably" being the key word here) accomplished.
In the USA, the power grid is Wal-Marted (Score:2, Insightful)
Capitalism enforces ever rising levels of mediocrity. Like what's in Wal-Mart, every product or service is made to be *just* reliable enough to sell and beat the competition, if there is any. The power grid is *just* good enough so that no company will spend money to fix it. As for the actual physical grid itself, there's no significant competition.Thinking ahead to emergencies doesn't figure into this, and don't even start to discuss the national interest if it compromises profit somewhere. EMP anyone?
Re:Without power? (Score:2, Insightful)
> 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.
Re:Dilapidated infrastructure? (Score:5, Insightful)
While I was in eastern France, Italy and even Germany, I saw plenty of power lines on poles in rural areas, so I doubt this is an American problem.England, less so, but mostly because I never left London.
For instance, storms last year brought down a lot of trees in northern France that caused massive power outages as well.
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/weatherhistorian/comment.html?entrynum=54 [wunderground.com]
I think this is less a case of "dilapidated infrastructure" and more a case of EURO vs USA put downs. I should point out that I've never seen a news report here in the US blaming European incompetence when a storm knocks out power.
We have the good sense to blame the storm. A storm in this particular situation was way under-estimated.
Re:Dilapidated infrastructure? (Score:5, Insightful)
I would have thought with the age of most European cities that above ground would be more common, that seems to be the excuse around these parts "well, that's just the way they did it back then. live with it." So if buried power in Europe is so much more common, what's the reason for that? Have power lines always been buried there? Was it done after WW2 since everything had to rebuilt anyway? Or did most countries just say "screw these ugly poles and wires" and eat the expense of burying the lines?
Re:Unions and Liability? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:why are so much wires above ground? (Score:5, Insightful)
and the fact that when you get to the republican areas everyone is always against higher taxes
My girlfriends hometown has a public pool that unfortunately needs extensive repairs because its leaking water. The town said it could fix it by raising taxes and of course there was a huge uproar. Then the town said they could fix it by charging people to use the pool, once again more uproar. Then someone discussed buying the pool but said he would have to charge three times as much on admission fees compared to the public fee to make it profitable. And you guessed it the people were still angry.
Its like people expect all these municipals and public services to paid off by money that comes out of thin air.
Re:visited to USA recently (Score:5, Insightful)
Have you actually been to any third world countries? I have, and I can tell you that the US is nothing at all like a third world country. In the slightest.
Case in point, I walk into my hotel for business in a third world country *at night*, it's a fairly nice hotel even. The power flicks out. No one is fazed because the computers and some lighting are still on, but most of the lighting is off and I am standing in the dark in a hotel lobby, without a cloud in the sky. Yes, this is due to scheduled blackouts. The blackouts continue for the rest of my two week stay, with perfect weather. That is what a third world country is like.
In the US, an unexpectedly strong storm with hurricane force winds come through. Some portion of people are without power for a few days because it was basically a hurricane without the days long weather track. That is annoying, but not a big deal.
As for the rest of it, the US has a shitty public transit system, but 95% of Americans own cars with relatively cheap gas. We don't *need* a public transit system like you might in other countries. The internet may well be slower than what you have into your house, maybe, but I can still do pretty much anything that anyone needs to do, short of running a popular website from my home computer.
The problems you are talking about are what we call "first world problems", not third world ones.
Re:Beacon Power (Score:5, Insightful)
We spent 4 trillion on a tax break and two wars and got NOTHING for it. Why not spend trillions on building a huge industry that would make us energy independent? Money spent on building shit benefits us all. The fifties were full of crazy ideas and huge projects and what did we get, the most awesome country in the world.
Also "inexpensive generator" do you mean one that can run AC? So in my house that is 4x40 amp circuits, plus a 15 amp for the fridge, two more 15's for the lights so a ~20K watt generator? So $5k plus installation, that's a two day job for an electrician so lets say $10k installed. Even if that is one in ten house houlds in America that is a fuck load of money. Why not spend it on something that will generate electricity for many many years and give us a hard currency export.
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Re:Without power? (Score:5, Insightful)
People complained about outages after Hurricane Whatever a few years ago so the utility came through and cut back everything. My neighborhood looked like a war zone when they were done. They even bush-hogged my flower garden. Then everybody complained about the trimming. Of course, we still lost power for 36 hours last weekend.
Every homeowner should have a generator, a water pump, and a gun. Waiting until you need one to get it is too late.
Re:Without power? (Score:5, Insightful)
Because "free market" is a lousy way to provide essential services. If you do, then only high profit neighborhoods will have affordable power. Most rural communities are heavily subsidized by their denser neighbors.
If this was a free market, then utilities would pull out of poor and low profit neighborhoods.
I know; I work for a utility. We have neighborhoods where we will never, ever, "make a profit", because we had to sink so much into the infrastructure that at our normal rates we will never make our investment back.
On the whole we're "profitable" - as profitable as a public corporation can be. But we could be raking in the big bucks if we were private and allowed to abandon "poorly performing" or "unprofitable" neighborhoods.
So your "free market" would take us back to the days when the rich had power, clean water, sewer, and internet, and the poor lived in squalor and filth.
Re:Wires (Score:5, Insightful)
they would be difficult to find and extremely expensive to fix. I'm not sure that I see underground cabling to be that much of an advantage.
Look up Time Domain Reflectometry. With it, an engineer can find a line break or insulation leakage to within a few centimeters on a kilometers-long stretch of wire. Underground damage is just not all that hard to find anymore. As far as expense, maintenance of overhead wires is surprisingly high. They have to continually trim trees to keep them away, they have to continually fix broken wires due to storms or cars and trucks accidentally ramming poles, and the risks to passersby from downed wires is a huge liability, with millions of dollars of lawsuits per death on the line. Compare those to the costs of burying a cable that basically will just sit there for years on end, with generally no significant mechanical stresses on it to cause failures.
The only drawback is making the investment to bury the wires. The payback is measured in decades, not months like the Chief Financial Officers want to see. They'd rather spend money on investments with quick profits.
Re:Beacon Power (Score:4, Insightful)
And how many trillions do you lose due to power outtages?
How many trillions would come directly back as taxes?
How many trillions could you make by selling more power because your grid is better?
How cheap exactly is a generator and the switching/gearing to connect it to your house?
Your point is very short sighted, indeed.
Re:Without power? (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't forget that hose poor living in squalor and filth would be stealing from and infecting the rich, and periodically lining them up against walls and shooting them.
Subsidizing basics like power, clean water, sewer and education for the poor works out quite well for the rich overall.
Re:why are so much wires above ground? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Without power? (Score:5, Insightful)
Gov't spending IS bad regardless of outcome. ALL gov't spending is bad under ALL situations.
Sending First generation and low-income students through college is bad? [ed.gov] I always assumed that more education = less money spent in the long run . . . . But I guess that decades of research (just google that) can be wrong. . . .
The productive USA was built without income taxes, without corporate taxes, without payroll taxes, without FDIC, Fed, IRS, FDA, FHA, EPA, CIA, FBI, SS, Medicare, EI, Medicaid, welfare, without dep't of energy, education, agriculture, small business, commerce, interior, HUD, etc.
Do you know why those things exist? To protect citizens. You can say what you want about the Gub'ment being out to get you, but it's true. Private enterprise in the 19th and early 20th century proved one thing, over-and-over, it will cut costs to the point of being dangerous to its workers, just to increase short-term profits. What choice do we have? Are you telling me that we can trust corporations to do what's in our best interests? If you say yes, please google anything with large businesses and the start of the labor movement.
But how does a country become a productive exporter, creditor without gov't building infrastructure? Because it's not true that gov't is needed to build any of it, what IS true is that WEALTH is needed to build infrastructure.There has to be a REASON to build infrastructure, there has to be wealth first, there has to be a promise of making a return - the profit motive is the driver, nothing else.
Okay, what about us who live where it wouldn't be profitable to run power, water or any other essential service? I guess we're just screwed. And Profit as the driver is an incredibly fine line. Today's attitude of bar-the-door short-term profits at the expense of all else doesn't exactly lend itself to developing long-term strategy. You know what does? Slow-moving government.
Infrastructure? How about the Keystone pipeline - the actual PRODUCTIVE infrastructure that private companies want to build, because they believe it's going to be profitable, it's going to make money. Is that the wrong thing today somehow - making money? USA was built by business, not by any government. USA was built by ABSENCE of gov't, people came to USA for freedoms from their totalitarian governments.
Keystone pipeline = 250,000 jobs is what we're told. NO, Keystone pipeline = 250,000 MOSTLY TEMPORARY man-year jobs. So, if it creates 20,000 jobs that last for 6 months, that's 10,000 jobs, correct? Nope. A job is a stable, long-term position. A temporary employment opportunity is what they're counting. It has nothing to do with long-term solutions. Granted, it's better than nothing, but change the discussion from how many jobs it will create by hyperbole, and actually give us a realistic number. I haven't been able to find one. And I'm not willing to trust someone who is driven by PROFIT to do what is in my best interest. No thank you.
The countries today that do the best are those that removed the most government controls from their economy over time, and USA is moving in a completely wrong direction.
Citation please? Are you talking about third world hell-holes? Or the pseudo-socialist Europeans?
You want infrastructure? You can't have infrastructure, there is nothing to build it for, and if there is something to build it for (like an oil pipeline) you are arguing against it, and it's not even a government project. You are not going to have infrastructure, because you don't have production. You are not going to have education and science, because you don't have manufacturing and engineering.
Wat? Are you saying that infrastructure necessarily equals profits and oil? Infrastructure means fixi
Re:Also the Drunken BackHoe Problem (Score:4, Insightful)
But the person that digs would have to pay the damages, not the end-user. And that problem exists with fiber too and although a frequent occurrence, it doesn't necessarily take the whole US Internet out or even the Internet for a city.
The problem is multi-fold
- The government put the cables in a long time ago, sometimes during periods where certain products were scarce (usually because of war) and thus sub-par elements were used (aluminum or steel)
- Privatized utilities got the wiring for free on the promise that they would expand and renew and have been collecting money but not investing it
- No government oversight for the privatized utilities to keep on their promise so things have not been inspected for years
- Patchwork as-needed repairs causing unnecessary losses and dependencies
- Increases in demand, decreases in classic resistive demands
- Most of the heaviest things (motors, airco) in homes still run on 110V even though 220V has been available in most homes but most homes haven't been wired correctly for 220V
- Now that the system is on the brink of collapse, the utilities go with outstretched hand back to the government in order to have the taxpayer pay for it regardless