Public Safety Power Shutoff 10/9/19

[mica]

At midnight on 10-9-19 much of Santa Rosa (and northern California) will experience the first Public Safety Power Shutoff, some 800,000 PG&E customers to be impacted. This is in response to the current weather conditions, hot dry winds much like the ones that pushed the 2017 fires to the extreme. While at the moment the map indicates that Alembic is just outside the zone that will be losing power, there is no guarantee. Also about half of our staff live in an area that will be affected. I'll update here as things progress, but the people in power tell us to prepare for as much as 5 days to restore power in some areas.

[David Houck]

It has finally started raining here after a long dry spell (and pretty warm for September and October).  Hope you get some relief soon.

[rv_bass]

Hope conditions improve soon.

[StephenR]

Facing the same situation here in the Oakland Hills except we seem to definitely be in "the zone."  So far no real wind and it wasn't excessively hot today either.

[edwardofhuncote]

It has finally started raining here after a long dry spell (and pretty warm for September and October).  Hope you get some relief soon.

Here too Dave... we were starting to get antsy up here. Burn bans already in place. I dumped a 1/4" out of the rain gauge at work this morning, and it's been drizzling all day.


Hoping the best for our California pals. I heard about the sweeping shutdowns this morning on the radio and wondered if Santa Rosa would be affected.

[sonicus]

I have several large capacity UPS  units ( uninterruptible power supply) for all my IT and computer needs . As well I now have a generator and also a commercial grade charger / inverter capable to handle several large batteries .   I  am also working on an off grid Solar array project that is not yet complete but a work in progress .
 My Inverter / Charger is a TRIPP-LITE  UT2012UL
PowerVerter 120V 2000W Utility Work Truck 12VDC Inverter Charger 2 NEMA 5 15R GFCI (UT2012UL) | Tripp Lite


I currently only have one large 12-volt Deep Cycle Battery connected however I will soon be getting  more wired in parallel .   My  off grid  solar system will be a discrete independent redundant  power system .

Be safe everyone and I hope that you are all able to get through this OK .

[bigredbass]

Geez, I hope you guys make out all right.  Dumb Question:  Why can't Pacific Gas and Eccentric just fix their lines?  Are they THAT lawyered up ? ?

[hieronymous]

There's lots going on - hopefully they're just being overly cautious and there won't be any fires - apparently the conditions over the next couple of days are going to be similar to the Tubbs fire two years ago. It's kind of a weird disaster before the fact - the preventative measures could have massive impact - is the power really going to go out all over the SF Bay Area? Will traffic lights be off? Will we have hot water? How long will it last? Sounds like Wolf has the right idea!

[jacko]

Stupid question from the other side of the pond. How does switching off the power grid avert a natural disaster?

Graeme.

[edwardofhuncote]

The winds on the western U.S. coasts are vicious this time of year, and with the extraordinarily dry conditions, a downed power line means an instant wildfire. It could literally burn square miles, entire towns.

[JimmyJ]

As Greg said, during these Santa Ana wind events the place gets so hot, dry and windy that the grass catches fire if you look at it the wrong way.  Your car's exhaust pipe will start a fire if you pull off the road into the grass.  Any kind of spark leads to big trouble. 

PG&E were in fact found liable for several fires over the past few years, though not the largest ones.  So many that the utility has gone through bankruptcy proceedings.  You can imagine the hundreds (thousands?) of miles of powerlines they are expected to maintain.  All it takes is one cable break or tree fall in these wind events to bring down a live wire and you've got a runaway brush fire. 

So instead of spending the rest of the year - and all of their money - hardening, insulating, burying, and clearing trees from their lines ... they have chosen to "err on the cautious side" by becoming an unreliable supplier...  I understand why they're doing it but I don't think that makes it right.  They're pushing the responsibility onto the customer to find their own backup power supplies.  I suppose it might help proliferate on-site solar installations but it feels a bit like a 3rd world approach by what is meant to be a reliable public utility. 


Best of luck up there.
Jimmy J

[StephenR]

So instead of spending the rest of the year - and all of their money - hardening, insulating, burying, and clearing trees from their lines ... they have chosen to "err on the cautious side" by becoming an unreliable supplier...  I understand why they're doing it but I don't think that makes it right.  They're pushing the responsibility onto the customer to find their own backup power supplies.  I suppose it might help proliferate on-site solar installations but it feels a bit like a 3rd world approach by what is meant to be a reliable public utility. 

Totally agree!

PG&E has spent a lot of time and money in our neighborhood this year clearing and trimming trees. In some cases they seem to be making the property owners do so in tandem with the Oakland Fire Department. We are in the current situation due to years of negligence by PG&E. Between the gas line explosions that killed many people and destroyed homes and the fires that were caused by PG&E lines coming down they have faced lots of fines and lawsuits. Everyone would like to feel safe but in a lot of ways the way this is being handled starts to feel like a giant FU to their customers.

They still can't guarantee that the Caldicott Tunnel to the East Bay or the Tom Lantos Tunnel on Rt1 near Pacifica are going to stay open. Closure is still planned for the Caldicott as of noon today. BART is already experiencing delays and if they close the tunnel the commute is going to be a huge mess. PG&E is installing emergency generators at the tunnels but why weren't they in place long before this?

Meanwhile there is still basically zero wind in the Oakland Hills and no high wind forecast yet over the next four days...  does anyone know if it is windy in the North Bay where they have already cut power?

[lbpesq]

Here at the top of the East Bay Hills, they told us they were turning our power off at midnight, last night.  I got the little generator out and laid out all the extension cords and power strips ready to quickly hook up the fridge, entertainment system, some lights, and wifi modem to the generator.  The power never went off.  Now some sources say we will be turned off at noon today, others say the shut down has been cancelled.  The PG&E website has been down since yesterday.

Meanwhile, PG&E have been replacing the telephone poles up here for the past couple of weeks.  They are putting a new pole right next to the old pole, except 4-5 feet taller.   It seems inefficient to me that they would go to all the trouble of hauling and installing all new poles but only make them 4-5 feet taller.  I would think the wires could be raised more to clear the trees.

Bill, tgo

[mica]

As of now, we still have power at Alembic. Like Bill mentioned, PG&E's website has been unreliable, but I have managed to get in on occasion. Funny how all the reported outages are "Cause Unknown" at this time. You just have to laugh. There are power outages all over the county, largely in the east and the hills.

Our version of the Santa Ana winds, the Diablo winds, are expected to kick in tonight (tomorrow really) at 2-5 am. But the wind is currently 7mph at home base.  To see the surface winds (and lots of other cool weather and oceanic stuff), check out www.nullschool.net.
A NIXLE alert from the city of Rohnert Park a short time ago indicated there are no more planned outages for Sonoma County, but Sonoma County hasn't sent out any updates since yesterday.

[StephenR]

Looks like they got generators and back up power in place for the two tunnels. Still no sign of any wind here.

Bill, it would make the most sense for them to bury the electrical wires, end of problem. No idea why they are wasting money erecting new poles but guessing it is cheaper than a real fix.