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PG&E


Subdeacon Joe

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We keep getting power outage alert calls telling us that some or all of our zip code may have power cut off starting at midnight.   OK, we've been hearing about it for a week. 

 

But if you tell us again that it is the LAST call I just may start screaming at the recording. 

 

My wife and I both have gotten 4 "last" calls this evening. 

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We get them from SDG&E when the Santa Ana’s kick up because they cut the power in some areas in the back country. They’ve never cut ours even though we’ve got many warnings. We’ll probably get them tomorrow evening as the winds are supposed to pick up.

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The Pleasanton Police Department tossed in some humor:

 

PG&E is anticipating widespread, strong and dry winds this week. Starting Wednesday, they are considering turning off power for safety to parts of California, including the Bay Area. So here are a few things you can do to help get through a power shutdown:
• If you come home and everything is dark and nothing works, then yes, you are experiencing a power shutdown. Remain calm. Use your cell phone light to search frantically for the one flashlight you think you have in the house. It will be dead of course. Search for batteries. You will need four but only find three.
• Wish you had charged your cell phone. Plug your phone into the charger but then say to yourself,  “duh the power is out.”
• Charge up those portable phone chargers tonight. However, keep in mind, should your teen’s phone run out of battery it could be a good thing. Watching them go through Tik-Tok or Instagram withdrawals could be good entertainment. Heck, it could even put them dangerously close to having to read a book by flashlight or doing something creative.
• Please do not call 911 and ask when the power will come back on. Our dispatchers are very good but they cannot see into the future. They will tell you they do not know and then disconnect so they can answer the other hundred calls from people asking about the power being out.
• Keep your freezer and refrigerator doors closed to keep food from spoiling. If you have teenagers this may be difficult so speak loudly but slowly to them so they understand. You may need to hang a sign on the doors as well. Use big letters.
• Use food supplies that do not require refrigeration. We think potato chips, Twinkies, Oreos, and peanut butter might be a good start! Okay, maybe throw an apple or an avocado in there, too.
• You will need a plan to keep medicines refrigerated or power-dependent medical devices working. 
• PG&E suggests you turn off or disconnect appliances, equipment or electronics. Power may return with momentary “surges” or “spikes” that may cause damage. 
• DO NOT use generators, camp stoves, or charcoal grills indoors. Carbon monoxide fumes can be deadly. Moreover, never use a gas stove top or oven to heat your home. Do what your mom used to tell you to do: Put on a sweater.
• Check on your neighbors. Even the one whose dog barks all night. And the other one who always parks in front of your house.

 

 

FB_IMG_1570588694953.jpg

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State government solution to the problem created when the power companies were barred from brush/tree clearing near transmission lines.  Removing said brush and tree branches would be an environmental tragedy, don'tcha know. 

 

B'sides... it might be the natural habitat of a previously thought extinct or heretofore undiscovered bug or sumpin'.  -_-

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We have received those calls from PG&E too. Last night, about 2:00 a.m. they turned off our power. There are no winds here.

 

What really irks me are the notices in my bill that they are seeking a rate increase for their Catastrophic Event Memorandum Account, which is needed due to fires they caused due to their failure to properly maintain their equipment.  This is while they continue to pay top management millions each year.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/03/27/pge-top-bosses-harvest-hefty-pay-hikes/

 

My neighbor, who just moved to Idaho, told me that my Hubby would consider moving in 2-3 years, when we run out of fire wood.

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17 minutes ago, Allie Mo, SASS No. 25217 said:

What really irks me are the notices in my bill that they are seeking a rate increase for their Catastrophic Event Memorandum Account

 

On Monday SCOTUS handed down a ruling that Sab Diego Gas and Electric can't raise rates to cover the costs of a 2007 fire.

 

Our power was cut at about 1:40 this morning. 

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The CA infrastructure is designed, by nature, to burn.
Long before man arrived, it burned every year, without any power lines.
There are species of pine tree that cannot germinate without the heat of a forest fire.

Fast forward and we have decades of hippies tying up loggers in the courts, so duff and dead trees accumulate at a rapid rate.
People then decide to build homes in areas that burn.

One has a clear choice:  manage the duff or burn.
So far, California has chosen to burn.
Just like it always has.

We live in the metro Sacramento area.
The power grid reliability in my neighborhood is akin to that of a banana republic. 
I really do believe it is time for us to have a whole-house generator.

 

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Received a call from my nephew in Half Moon Bay, CA, and they are having their power cut off and expect it to last until Sunday. 

Even after the weather situation is no longer a threat, PG&E will have to inspect every inch of line and repair any damage before power can be turned back on.

So here is how my nephew sees it.

  1. Environmental extremest won't let vegetation to be maintained, thus creating fire hazard.
  2. Homes were approved to be built in high fire hazard zones.
  3. The state has given PG&E a monopoly.
  4. PG&E doesn't do proper maintenance of their equipment and lines.
  5. Court ruled PG&E was responsible for the tragic fires that lost homes and lives, therefore, PG&E has to pay $11 billion.
  6. PG&E will have power shut off due to high winds to protect lives and cover PG&E's ass.
  7. Businesses & Schools close at the cost of more billions of dollars.
  8. Senior citizens, the health infirmed, and very young in danger of death due to loss of power.
  9. Traffic accidents expected to surge during power outages.
  10. Crime expected to surge during power outages.
  11. State wants to take away his AR-15.

Nephew refers to his state as "The People's Banana Republic of Kalifornia."

 

Bless California's Heart.

 

.

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We get our power from SMUD, Sacramento power utility, no problems with being turned off.
PG&E is financially ruined.

Private home owners responding to Door #10 with their firearms will be financially destroyed by the State.
CA will eventually ban all firearms, unless they are hauled into the SCOTUS and spanked, hard.
My wheel guns will be the last ones they ban.

This may all come to nothing... if the voters repeal Prop13 property tax protections in 2020.
This will destroy the CA economy and tens of thousands will flee to outlying statues to escape punitive property tax levels.
San Diego jumped our family ancestral home up to $16,600 per year.
Took 2 full years to fight it (and win), but had to pony up $30k in 60 days or lose the property.
I got my refund back, but now have to pay income taxes on my own money which is declared a "Tax refund"

Banana republic, indeed.

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41 minutes ago, Birdgun Quail, SASS #63663 said:

Received a call from my nephew in Half Moon Bay, CA, and they are having their power cut off and expect it to last until Sunday. 

Even after the weather situation is no longer a threat, PG&E will have to inspect every inch of line and repair any damage before power can be turned back on.

So here is how my nephew sees it...

 

     4. PG&E doesn't do proper maintenance of their equipment and lines.

 

Nephew refers to his state as "The People's Banana Republic of Kalifornia."

 

Bless California's Heart.

 

.

 

Number 4 is generally not the case with the electrical stuff (although there have been notable exceptions in other areas... just ask the good citizens of San Bruno!). 

 

PG&E is required by law to maintain the transmission line rights-of-way, and they used to do a good job of it.  However, there's now a history of being repeatedly blocked in those efforts by enviro-nuts and the courts.   

 

Here's a typical argument (article link below):

 

"Some members of the Save the American River Association and the American River Parkway Coalition and others are fighting to stop PG&E from cutting down what they estimate could be 100 cottonwood and oak trees near a major electricity transmission line that runs through the parkway near Discovery Park...."

 

Is PG&E going too far?

 

Otherwise, there's no shortage of other issues to get grumpy with 'em about.  And don't forget the so-called PUC (Public Utilities Commission), who have a history of just about giving PG&E a rubber-stamp "Okey Dokie!" every time the company asks for a rate increase.  <_<

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7 hours ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said:

 

Number 4 is generally not the case with the electrical stuff (although there have been notable exceptions in other areas... just ask the good citizens of San Bruno!). 

 

PG&E is required by law to maintain the transmission line rights-of-way, and they used to do a good job of it.  However, there's now a history of being repeatedly blocked in those efforts by enviro-nuts and the courts.   

 

Here's a typical argument (article link below):

 

"Some members of the Save the American River Association and the American River Parkway Coalition and others are fighting to stop PG&E from cutting down what they estimate could be 100 cottonwood and oak trees near a major electricity transmission line that runs through the parkway near Discovery Park...."

 

Is PG&E going too far?

 

Otherwise, there's no shortage of other issues to get grumpy with 'em about.  And don't forget the so-called PUC (Public Utilities Commission), who have a history of just about giving PG&E a rubber-stamp "Okey Dokie!" every time the company asks for a rate increase.  <_<

The PUC is bought and paid for by the power companies, IMO, of course.

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9 hours ago, Sedalia Dave said:

Wonder how many hours the backup power to the cell phone towers will last? :o:D:lol:

In a lot of cases the cell sites don’t have back up generators. County and state agencies have made rules for generators that are very onerous and the fines they impose are uncalled for. The sites that I built all had standby generators and after we sold them the new owners removed the generators.

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Take away their electricity and they will grumble rather loudly.

 

Take away their cell phone connectivity and I bet you can hear them scream all the way to the moon.

 

That is when the cell towers come back online. :D:D:D

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1 hour ago, Yul Lose said:

In a lot of cases the cell sites don’t have back up generators. County and state agencies have made rules for generators that are very onerous and the fines they impose are uncalled for. The sites that I built all had standby generators and after we sold them the new owners removed the generators.

Several of the cell towers out here have solar panels.

OLG

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5 minutes ago, The Original Lumpy Gritz said:

Several of the cell towers out here have solar panels.

OLG

Solar has its limitations also. We tried solar at a couple of mountain top sites and between the wind, ice and snow they didn’t last.

 

I built a solar site out in Az. many years ago on a helicopter access only site in the Sierra Estrella range south of Phoenix. I got a call from a customer one Sunday morning saying his two way radio repeater on that site was off the air. So I called my helicopter company up at Sky Harbor and arranged for a helicopter to meet me at the base of the mountain to pick me and my tools up to fly up to the site. I drove to the meet site loaded myself and all of my gear on the chopper and we flew up to the site. The pilot always circled the site before landing and the first thing that I notice is that the 12 solar panels are gone. I called my boss at the time to let him know and he didn’t believe me. Well I finally convinced him and he called Kyocera, just down the road from Sky Harbor at the time and arranged for 12 new panels to be waiting at the airport when we got there, mind you this is Sunday afternoon.

 

Well we got to Sky Harbor and got all of the panels loaded into the helicopter and tied onto the skids and headed back to the site. We landed and got everything unloaded and my boss had driven out to the base of the mountain where I was parked and the helicopter went down there and picked him up and we spent the evening and most of the night replacing the 12 panels. The helicopter had left after it dropped my boss off at the site so we had to wait up there until daylight to get picked up. 

 

Believe it it or not solar panels were stolen from that site a couple of more times over the years.

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1 minute ago, Yul Lose said:

Solar has its limitations also. We tried solar at a couple of mountain top sites and between the wind, ice and snow they didn’t last. 

The Crows like'em ..... :lol:

TNX for the info.

OLG

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Weather’s weird. It’s really warm. Wind’s blowing. People are driving like a-holes.

 

 

I think I will go shooting...at the range. Not at the a-holes. ;)

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I remember seeing a home-brew A/C generator hooked up to a Toyota 2TC pushrod hemi.
That was my favorite engine to work on... a long time ago.

It seems to me an enterprising fella could assemble one of these to drive a generator sufficient to power the house.
There are new hi-tech models that run directly off natural gas, or propane, but these are muy pricey.

Our section of Sacramento is constantly losing power.

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