So... here's the skinny on our third-world power grid:
Xcel working to solve repeated power failures
January 11, 2011 1:09 PM
An Xcel spokesman said a short-term solution to Portales’ power troubles has been found and crews are working to resolve recent problems.
Technicians are installing a higher capacity breaker in a substation near downtown Portales while at the same time working to shift power loads from overloaded lines, spokesman Wes Reeves said Tuesday.
“(The new breaker) will allow more power to flow,” Reeves said, as opposed to the existing breaker, which trips the circuit at a lower level, causing power failures.
About 600-800 Portales Xcel customers have lost power four times in the last week, with the most recent incident being Tuesday morning.
“Customers should be aware that these are extreme conditions and should be prepared to keep warm in some other way if the power goes out again,” Reeves said.
There's more at the link, including the fact last night's failures were on the coldest day of the season. I got a kick out of the only comment on the story:
Last weeks story was a joke. Xcel blames their customers for not telling them that the grid load has increased over time. I believe we all have that little round box on the side of our house that tells them how much electricity is being used. At least they send me a letter every month asking for money! We lost power six times last night and once this morning.The commenter's reference to "blaming the customers" comes from a quote by an Xcel energy spokesman who asked customers to notify Xcel when they install new appliances or devices that will increase electricity consumption. They really said that.
Update, 1815 hrs. Mebbe Xcel could call these guys for some professional help:
Civil engineers restore electricity to villageHeh.
Posted 1/11/2011
by Senior Airman Tong Duong
332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
1/11/2011 - JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq (AFNS) -- For the past three months, inhabitants of Bakir village, Iraq, were without power, but members of the 332nd Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron, contractors and local Iraqi electricians worked together to install new high-voltage cable to restore electricity.
I went to start my truck this morning. Having gotten-up 30 minutes early to compensate for the cold.
ReplyDeleteclick, click, click...
Ah crap! So anyway, eight years is the life of an Autozone battery :-)
Last year it was fuel filter frozen solid.
This global warming is really pissing me off!
You're NOT alone, Anon.
ReplyDeleteThere is a show on Discovery (or some such channel) titled "The Crumbling of America". It is about the decaying, aged infrastructure in the U.S. Pretty sobering. The long and short of it is the fact that much of our infrastructure is slowly failing, and costs for repair will be astronomical.
ReplyDeleteAnother case of gubmint failure.
“(The new breaker) will allow more power to flow,” Reeves said,.."
ReplyDeleteThem thar Reeves boys are pretty dadgone sharp! Nyuk!
Ummmm...well, I shall give kudos to American Electric Power (that bought out SWEPCO...my power provider several years ago). There is never a shortage of power around here, even in the 104 degree Summers when the ACs never shut off.
Plus, they've just opened up another new power plant in SHV in anticipation of higher future loads.
About the only time we have an outage is during ice storms when all these 150 year-old oak trees crater.
Or, when my light bill payment gets "lost in the mail." It happens, ya' know! Damn postal service!
Oh, btw...at just sub-freezing this am, I cranked the Sable...rurr, rurr, rurr, rurr, rrrrrrrrrrrrrroooom!
ReplyDeleteTomorrow am it will be about 10 degrees colder. I'm not optimistic.
BR: I think it's criminal that precious little of that "stimulus" money was put into infrastructure projects.
ReplyDeleteAndy: I know about ice storms, and they are UG-LEEE. I shouldn't bitch about losing power for only a half-hour, when some folks go without power for DAYS after an ice storm.
And good luck with the car this morning.
Ah yes, ice storms.
ReplyDeleteWent through a couple of those when I lived on the lower mainland and went without power for 4 days. Didn't do too bad, the horses' water trough was full at the start of it all but flushing the toilet? That's a completely different story when you're living on the farm and using well water. We ended up using 5 gallon buckets to draw some water from the pond for the purpose.
I've been thru a couple as well, Deb, but never one of those world-class events where the power is out for days.
ReplyDelete