5 ms·

I used to think power outages we’re mainly a developing country problem, this definitely changes my understanding of the tiers of maturity of countries.

sidlls 7y ago
Many aspects of PG&E should bring to mind developing countries: corruption, graft, incompetent management, etc. It's an embarrassing situation to be in, and both PG&E and the state government are culpable.
- sargram01 7y ago
  TIL graft = political corruption, using ones political office for personal gain, misdirecting public funds to private interests. Shocking! (not really)
- inferiorhuman 7y ago
  So it's the state's fault that PG&E is corrupt? Please.
  - sidlls 7y ago
    No, they're independently corrupt, and have overlapping interests.
    - inferiorhuman 7y ago
      So how is the state culpable for PG&E's corrupt behavior?
skybrian 7y ago
It's pretty common for rural areas in the U.S. to have power failures during storms. Maybe not in California, though?
- jjav 7y ago
  Important context here is that there never was any storm. Shutting power as winds approach hurricane force is very sensible. Here (bay area) this week, the forecast was for winds in the 30mph range with gusts into the 40s. Windy yes, but hardly a storm. The kicker is the winds never arrived. PG&E shutdown was scheduled for noon Wednesday but there no wind at all. So they postponed it to 8pm. At 8pm, no wind either. No further news from PG&E. At 11pm they cut power. Still no wind (maybe gusting to 2mph). Overnight - no wind. Next morning - no wind. Nature really called them out here to highlight it was purely a political move. PG&E postponed the shutdown a few times waiting for the wind but when it never arrived they shut power down anyway.
  - rrss 7y ago
    > The kicker is the winds never arrived Winds were 30-40 mph in the hills in the north and east bay late Wednesday and early Thursday. Mt Diablo had 70+ mph gusts. The wind forecasts were never for the low elevations.
  - sipherhex 7y ago
    > The kicker is the winds never arrived. Winds over 60mph on the ridges. https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KCALOSGA177/graph/2019-10-10/2019-10-10/daily https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KCALOSGA177/graph... We had 40+mph winds at our home all night. Based on previous experience the power would have gone out anyhow. In the spring we had a tree take down the power line in front of the house and continue arcing. Thank goodness it was a day after rain and calm wind. On a night like this recent night, the mountain would have been ash. For those that live in rural, fire-prone areas power outages are often fairly normal and the big danger is burning. If someone hears 4th of July fireworks being set off where I live there's a real risk of a vigilante mob. The tradeoff of power cuts seems reasonable. There has been reporting that preventive power cuts are generally a good idea, but highly unpopular unless they are really targeted. This is what San Diego Gas & Electric learned: put in equipment to enable more targeted cuts and monitoring. I expect this is where PG&E will need to invest next.

sidlls 7y ago

Many aspects of PG&E should bring to mind developing countries: corruption, graft, incompetent management, etc. It's an embarrassing situation to be in, and both PG&E and the state government are culpable.

sargram01 7y ago
TIL graft = political corruption, using ones political office for personal gain, misdirecting public funds to private interests. Shocking! (not really)
inferiorhuman 7y ago
So it's the state's fault that PG&E is corrupt? Please.
- sidlls 7y ago
  No, they're independently corrupt, and have overlapping interests.
  - inferiorhuman 7y ago
    So how is the state culpable for PG&E's corrupt behavior?

skybrian 7y ago

It's pretty common for rural areas in the U.S. to have power failures during storms. Maybe not in California, though?

jjav 7y ago
Important context here is that there never was any storm. Shutting power as winds approach hurricane force is very sensible. Here (bay area) this week, the forecast was for winds in the 30mph range with gusts into the 40s. Windy yes, but hardly a storm. The kicker is the winds never arrived. PG&E shutdown was scheduled for noon Wednesday but there no wind at all. So they postponed it to 8pm. At 8pm, no wind either. No further news from PG&E. At 11pm they cut power. Still no wind (maybe gusting to 2mph). Overnight - no wind. Next morning - no wind. Nature really called them out here to highlight it was purely a political move. PG&E postponed the shutdown a few times waiting for the wind but when it never arrived they shut power down anyway.
- rrss 7y ago
  > The kicker is the winds never arrived Winds were 30-40 mph in the hills in the north and east bay late Wednesday and early Thursday. Mt Diablo had 70+ mph gusts. The wind forecasts were never for the low elevations.
- sipherhex 7y ago
  > The kicker is the winds never arrived. Winds over 60mph on the ridges. https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KCALOSGA177/graph/2019-10-10/2019-10-10/daily https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KCALOSGA177/graph... We had 40+mph winds at our home all night. Based on previous experience the power would have gone out anyhow. In the spring we had a tree take down the power line in front of the house and continue arcing. Thank goodness it was a day after rain and calm wind. On a night like this recent night, the mountain would have been ash. For those that live in rural, fire-prone areas power outages are often fairly normal and the big danger is burning. If someone hears 4th of July fireworks being set off where I live there's a real risk of a vigilante mob. The tradeoff of power cuts seems reasonable. There has been reporting that preventive power cuts are generally a good idea, but highly unpopular unless they are really targeted. This is what San Diego Gas & Electric learned: put in equipment to enable more targeted cuts and monitoring. I expect this is where PG&E will need to invest next.