3 ms·

Sure, just multi-hundred amp capable infrastructure run in the middle of the street, installed to withstand weather and seismic events, with someone on call to

Sure, just multi-hundred amp capable infrastructure run in the middle of the street, installed to withstand weather and seismic events, with someone on call to fix it when it fails, liable for injury or other harm... PG&E might be shite, but the hand-wavy dismissal of modern electric infrastructure is overlooking something that is a real benefit to society, and that infrastructure has real costs to keep it running.

Dylan16807 4y ago
> Sure, just multi-hundred amp capable infrastructure run in the middle of the street, installed to withstand weather and seismic events, with someone on call to fix it when it fails, liable for injury or other harm... You can pay people to install cables, and you can get insurance. We're talking about a lot of money to save and pay for it. > PG&E might be shite, but the hand-wavy dismissal of modern electric infrastructure is overlooking something that is a real benefit to society, and that infrastructure has real costs to keep it running. The real point here is that if you moved the meter slightly there could be a huge change in price, and that seems weird!
hadlock 4y ago
There's quite a lot of buried conduit across america. A lot of high end neighborhoods have it to avoid having telephone poles up and down the street and in their nice manicured lawns. LA has an absolutely massive cable that runs from some power plant right to downtown that's over 50 years old, soaked in a paper and mineral oil bath about 20 feet underground. For smaller conduit (like, 200 amp) you just need a standard conduit, with the cable running through it, and a couple inches of slack on either end. How do you think they run power to detached garages, sheds, ADUs etc in people's backyards? I can totally see rich neighborhoods putting in additional solar, a private battery + diesel backup and disconnecting from the grid, just like they probably already have their own well and sometimes even septic. If the payback is anywhere near 10 years that is a no-brainer.
- tguvot 4y ago
  very good story about repairs of above mentioned LA cable https://www.jwz.org/blog/2002/11/engineering-pornography/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2002/11/engineering-pornography/
  - bjord 4y ago
    damn, I actually wanted to read about that cable edit: I just checked archive.is and it's...there? under what circumstances do I get redirected to that nsfw meme?
    - tguvot 4y ago
      i guess JWZ doesn't like things linked from HN
    - hadlock 4y ago
      jwz is one of the original developers of Netscape Navigator, an old man by these forums standards. That is the modern equivalent of "Get off my Lawn"
  - robocat 4y ago
    Here’s a similar story from 1998 in Auckland, New Zealand where everything failed for 5 weeks: https://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/misc/mercury.txt https://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/misc/mercury.txt

Dylan16807 4y ago

> Sure, just multi-hundred amp capable infrastructure run in the middle of the street, installed to withstand weather and seismic events, with someone on call to fix it when it fails, liable for injury or other harm... You can pay people to install cables, and you can get insurance. We're talking about a lot of money to save and pay for it. > PG&E might be shite, but the hand-wavy dismissal of modern electric infrastructure is overlooking something that is a real benefit to society, and that infrastructure has real costs to keep it running. The real point here is that if you moved the meter slightly there could be a huge change in price, and that seems weird!

hadlock 4y ago

There's quite a lot of buried conduit across america. A lot of high end neighborhoods have it to avoid having telephone poles up and down the street and in their nice manicured lawns. LA has an absolutely massive cable that runs from some power plant right to downtown that's over 50 years old, soaked in a paper and mineral oil bath about 20 feet underground. For smaller conduit (like, 200 amp) you just need a standard conduit, with the cable running through it, and a couple inches of slack on either end. How do you think they run power to detached garages, sheds, ADUs etc in people's backyards? I can totally see rich neighborhoods putting in additional solar, a private battery + diesel backup and disconnecting from the grid, just like they probably already have their own well and sometimes even septic. If the payback is anywhere near 10 years that is a no-brainer.

tguvot 4y ago
very good story about repairs of above mentioned LA cable https://www.jwz.org/blog/2002/11/engineering-pornography/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2002/11/engineering-pornography/
- bjord 4y ago
  damn, I actually wanted to read about that cable edit: I just checked archive.is and it's...there? under what circumstances do I get redirected to that nsfw meme?
  - tguvot 4y ago
    i guess JWZ doesn't like things linked from HN
  - hadlock 4y ago
    jwz is one of the original developers of Netscape Navigator, an old man by these forums standards. That is the modern equivalent of "Get off my Lawn"
- robocat 4y ago
  Here’s a similar story from 1998 in Auckland, New Zealand where everything failed for 5 weeks: https://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/misc/mercury.txt https://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/misc/mercury.txt