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‘This Did Not Go Well’: Inside PG&E’s Blackout Control Room
NYT ^

Posted on 10/13/2019 6:59:58 AM PDT by janetjanet998

AN FRANCISCO — It was a problem that California had come to dread. Weather models were signaling extreme winds and dry conditions from one end of the state to the other. The risk of wildfires was high.

Pacific Gas & Electric, the giant utility whose power lines and transformers have been blamed for a series of disastrous wildfires in recent years, was determined to prevent another one. Just before last weekend, the company informed state officials that it might shut off power to a large area of Northern California, potentially leaving millions of people in the dark — something no United States utility had done in recent memory. It made that news public on Monday.

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: califblackouts; pgande; pge
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To: minnesota_bound
You save money by not doing maintenance.

IIRC, that's what killed GTE.

101 posted on 10/13/2019 12:55:30 PM PDT by null and void (Convicted spies are shot, traitors are hanged, saboteurs are subject to summary execution...)
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To: gogeo

I did, well before I posted. Years before.


102 posted on 10/13/2019 12:57:20 PM PDT by null and void (Convicted spies are shot, traitors are hanged, saboteurs are subject to summary execution...)
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To: rey

Not nonsense. There was zero calls until my neighbors started getting them around 1930. Maybe you got it earlier. We didn’t.


103 posted on 10/13/2019 1:45:28 PM PDT by Karliner (Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 8:28 Isa 17 "This is the end of the beginning" W Churchill)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

It’s a slippery slope, more cost effective to appease but eventually the weight of taking the easy road pulls the whole sleigh to a halt. Maybe there will be a winnowing of those woke executives now that fingers are being pointed.

No one wants to fight the crazies but the people of California are paying the price of empowering them. Hopefully President Trump will apply some common sense not only in California but across the Nation. There is a tremendous lose of productivity & a brake on our economic engine due solely to political correctness and pseudo grievances, not to mention the climate change fallacy.


104 posted on 10/13/2019 2:22:59 PM PDT by JayGalt (You can't teach a donkey how to tap dance. Nemo me impune lacessit!)
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To: Mastador1

I don’t understand why they turned off the power,” she said. “No winds at all. And because of that, my father is gone. Blaming them is not going to bring my father back, unfortunately.”

Mardis, who had severe coronary artery atherosclerosis, breathed with the help of a nasal tube. His family, who had been told by power utility PG&E to expect the planned outage, had battery-operated backup machines ready for him to use — but the timing of the sudden shutoff, at 3:30 a.m., caught them unawares.


105 posted on 10/13/2019 2:24:57 PM PDT by JayGalt (You can't teach a donkey how to tap dance. Nemo me impune lacessit!)
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To: JayGalt
I feel sorry for them. Too bad they didn’t know that a $30 Wireless Power Failure Sensor with 90 dB Alarm available at Home Depot would have alerted them to the power outage.

Or, for $190, an ISOCKET 3G with a built-in cell phone modem would have sent them a text message when the power goes out.

See A Power Outage Alarm is an Emergency Essential for other ideas.

If anybody here has a loved one who requires 100% reliable power, look into these solutions.

106 posted on 10/13/2019 3:25:11 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: JayGalt
If you knew there was a risk of a sudden cut off of power, whether or no you had a battery back up machine available, would you not have a oxygen supply available? And would it not be prudent to have dad on the uninterruptible tank supply if you weren't going to vigilant during such a risk?

I'm tired of people playing the victim when they are either too lazy, unconcerned or stupid to take proper care and precautions and refuse to accept responsibility.

There are numerous battery back ups, UPS's of all different sizes that only kick in and emit an alarm when power is out and and they are reasonably priced.

My 88 year old mother is in poor health and wears First Alert device since being hospitalized due to a fall, the device requires a active phone line and hers requires power to a cable modem. SCE has frequent outages in her senior community so I purchased a UPS so that there is ALWAYS power to the modem and her phone line for the device and mind you this is a First Alert not a oxygen generator required to keep her alive.

No I have no sympathy for these people because to my mind they............just.........didn't......really care about daddy!

107 posted on 10/13/2019 3:31:01 PM PDT by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
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To: hal ogen

Californians who voted for LIB asshats: Enjoy the suck.
————————————’

Cool.

What about those who didn’t?


108 posted on 10/13/2019 4:07:46 PM PDT by Freedom56v2
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To: C210N

Don’t see any problem. Doesn’t every CA’ian homeowner have solar panels on the roof, and monster batteries in the basement, with backup windmill in the backyard?


No they don’t...

Apparently you don’t personally know a lot of “Ca’ian” (???) Californian homeowners —I have family there, and they don’t have solar panels and “monster batteries” in the basement nor a backup windmill in the backyard.


109 posted on 10/13/2019 4:12:29 PM PDT by Freedom56v2
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To: JayGalt

While you’re probably right, in the situation the family found themselves in what you posted is entirely meaningless.


110 posted on 10/13/2019 4:16:19 PM PDT by Balding_Eagle ( The Great Wall of Trump ---- 100% sealing of the border. Coming soon.)
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To: Freedom56v2

Please don’t take this personally. It was tongue-in-cheek.


111 posted on 10/13/2019 4:25:11 PM PDT by C210N (If you dislike productive billionaires, be 1,000 times more suspect of one confiscatory trillionaire)
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To: Balding_Eagle

Thank you for your response. Not quite sure what you mean.
It is a complex situation.

I think the Government interfered with the proper management of the utility company, the grid & the forest. As a result the utility company is between a rock and a hard place and the citizens of California are bearing the brunt.

It is unconscionable that the grid is turned off arbitrarily and without a specific timed warning in a non-emergent situation. Ordinary people can take precautions but cannot be assumed to have redundant fail safe methods and alarms on short notice. There are many people who are dependent on power to survive. California is becoming a third world country while taxing it’s citizens like a cradle to grave European country. Worshiping at the alter of green energy. PC and climate change by the elected leaders, is bringing Cali to the precipice.


112 posted on 10/13/2019 4:39:43 PM PDT by JayGalt (You can't teach a donkey how to tap dance. Nemo me impune lacessit!)
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To: JayGalt

I was trying too hard to be diplomatic about the family.

They were warned that the power could go off at night, they presumably knew the man couldn’t go long without supplemental oxygen, and would be deprived of that oxygen if the power went off.

They should have, but did not, prepare.

While we can rightly, ultimately, blame the environmentalists, the more direct cause of this mans death belongs to those who were there that night.


113 posted on 10/13/2019 5:09:19 PM PDT by Balding_Eagle ( The Great Wall of Trump ---- 100% sealing of the border. Coming soon.)
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To: Balding_Eagle

OK. I think having a battery backup oxygen source on hand was being prepared. If the Utility had notified people about the date & time then I would agree with you. He should have gone to sleep with the battery powered O2 working.

Thank you for your courtesy. Freegards


114 posted on 10/13/2019 5:22:44 PM PDT by JayGalt (You can't teach a donkey how to tap dance. Nemo me impune lacessit!)
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To: janetjanet998

Next time just call it Electric Power Appreciation Day.


115 posted on 10/13/2019 7:58:41 PM PDT by The_Media_never_lie (Please, oh pretty please let Crazy Uncle Joe Biden be the nominee.)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom
Residents were left asking why so many people had to lose power and whether rolling blackouts would become routine as climate change makes wildfires more frequent and intense.

Maybe sitting in the dark will help their focus.

116 posted on 10/13/2019 10:24:27 PM PDT by gogeo (The left prides themselves on being tolerant, but they can't even be civil.)
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To: rey

I totally agree with your line of thinking, but I think they need to do a lot more planning to use this avenue of prevention. And now the Governor is demanding they pay for turning the juice off!


117 posted on 10/15/2019 6:44:00 AM PDT by grame (May you know more of the love of God Almighty this day!)
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To: bigbob

I agree. It just seems the whole episode was too chaotic and there wasn’t a clear plan that everyone knew about.


118 posted on 10/15/2019 6:46:06 AM PDT by grame (May you know more of the love of God Almighty this day!)
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To: JayGalt

I think you are making the point I was trying to make, who’s in charge here? It didn’t seem there was advanced notice, a change of command for spreading information. Chaos in all caps!


119 posted on 10/15/2019 6:49:17 AM PDT by grame (May you know more of the love of God Almighty this day!)
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To: grame

Oh, without a doubt, but these guys are pretty hamstrung. Yesterday Newsome was darn near ordering PG&E to give every customer $100 and every business $250 for the outage. PG&E CEO said no way and they would not consider paying on ANY lawsuit.


120 posted on 10/15/2019 7:34:20 AM PDT by rey
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