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Post by papaof2 on Apr 19, 2021 20:52:34 GMT -6
I seem to post a lot of power outage items, but this one seems noteworthy.
Sometime after 6:30PM, Georgia Power had a vehicle accident-caused outage which affected more than 1200 meters. Their ERT (Estimated Restoration Time) was 9:30PM. I thought that was optimistic.
A little after 9PM, the outage numbers dropped to just over 500 (more than half restored) but the time didn't change. It's now after 10:30PM and their ERT for the remaining meters is now 4:15AM.
If those people didn't run their phones down talking, texting or surfing the internet, I guess they could use the phone for an alarm clock because they probably don't have a battery-powered or windup alarm clock. Unless they just decide to stay up to see when the power comes back on and take a sick day tomorrow.
The overnight low is forecast to be upper 40's so maybe they won't need heat tonight...
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Post by 9idrr on Apr 21, 2021 19:12:14 GMT -6
And we all know that with every day that passes after an outage or other hiccup in the system, the more likely some folks are to forget about preparin' for the next potential problem.
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Post by willc453 on Apr 27, 2021 14:13:05 GMT -6
Grew up in Homestead, Florida (south of Miami) for a few years beginning in 1960. At that time, it was all new sub-divisions around us and of course, electricity was the "way to go" instead of "stinky/old" fashioned stoves was the sale pitch at the time. Hello hurricanes. It remained a G.I./retired G.I. suburb for a number of decades, but people get old and move away and homes get sold to non G.I's. Until Andrew hit, hurricanes were a kind of nuisance. Thing is, all the homes were originally with tar and gravel roofs, but the newbies said, oh, that looks SO tacky and put up shingles(?!) in its place. That was one reason so many homes people I knew back then got destroyed. Once those shingles left in a hurry, bye bye house. We and other G.I. families had camping gear and those that didn't would come over to our place or others to cook on our 2 burner Coleman stoves. Dad & brother moved north of Tampa after Andrew. Thing is, A holes still want their shingled roofs or to live in a trailer park?
Having said that, remember the outage Texas had not long ago? Wanna bet 99% of 'em will say this will never happen again and do NOTHING to prepare in case it does. They get what they deserve as far as I'm concerned, though feel bad for the kids to have to suffer for their parents stupidity & arrogance.
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Post by papaof2 on Apr 27, 2021 17:04:04 GMT -6
Parents need to be aware enough to teach the kids at a young age to have a flashlight available for power outages and to expand that teaching as the kids get older - not that many people do :-(
Our main level is heated with natural gas, upstairs bedrooms with heat pump. No power? Come down and sleep on a sofa across from the fireplace with battery-controlled gas logs (the remote and the gas valve are battery-operated).
Cooking is gas, or the propane grill, or the Coleman stove (Coleman fuel, unleaded gas or propane), or the rocket stove. Guess we could put a skillet over the gas logs also ;-)
We don't have family or friends who have backups (other than the few who use wood as alternate heating and one group who could go to their fifth-wheel RV for a little while) and certainly not backups to their backups. I stopped talking about even simple preps a long time ago. Too much "Can't happen" and "Coming to your house". The last from someone whose primary transportation is a battery-operated scooter, lives 3+ miles of hilly two-lane county roads away - no sidewalks - and wasn't interested in solar power for charging the scooter.
I'm still exploring more efficient ways of doing small jobs of solar battery charging. Found a PWM (basic) charge controller which draws less than 0.001 amp after dark. Typical PWM controllers use 10 to 20 times as much power. For a small battery system being charged continuously, this could be ideal, as the overnight power used by the controller would be replaced in just a few minutes the next morning.
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Post by papaof2 on May 14, 2021 21:11:58 GMT -6
No rain, no lightning, no wind but...
I've commented about the quality (or lack thereof) of our electric co-op's outasge map. Here's another example.
Outage page header is "867 Current Outages". There are two areas of outage identified. One is 742 meters. The other is 223 meters. 742 + 223 = 965 Their count is only off by 98 meters or almost 10%.
Ten minutes later, the page header is "745 Current Outages" and the only outage marker is for 742 meters. It is somewhat closer, but that outage is about 2 1/2 hours old.
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Post by papaof2 on May 15, 2021 1:26:16 GMT -6
Scanning the local power outage pages for anything of interest, I found one outage from Georgia Power and one from the other co-op in the county. Georgia Power lists the cause as "Vehicle accident" and they have 166 meters out. This is one of the areas where your electric service provider is determined by which side of the street - or possibly which side of the intersection - you live on and the other co-op has 56 meters out on the same street. The maps don't go to a fine enough level to make that determination but the waterway shown on both maps puts the Georgia Power outage just a tiny bit North of the other co-op's outage so the likelihood of a common failure cause is high. Map reading is a useful skill for many things.
I find it interesting that the co-op thinks they'll have their customers up by 5:30AM but Georgia Power says 7:15AM. Don't know that I'll be awake to check on that...
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Post by papaof2 on May 15, 2021 3:29:13 GMT -6
At 5:30AM, the co-op has all but 6 of its meters back in service.
Georgia Power still has all 166 meters out and has moved their restoration time out to 9:15AM.
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Post by papaof2 on May 15, 2021 4:13:28 GMT -6
At 6AM, Georgia power still has 9:15AM as restoration time.
The other co-op is now showing noon for their remaining 6 meters.
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Post by papaof2 on May 17, 2021 21:55:46 GMT -6
About 13 minutes after 9PM, the lights flickered, there was a large GROAN! from outside, the lights flickered again - with another GROAN! - and then the power was off to stay. I reported the outage using the co-op's app on my phone but I've heard nothing back from them about restoration time. Their outage map shows the failure at 9:15PM but I looked at the clock when the first flicker occurred and that was at 9:13. Some 30 minutes later, I have the backup system powering the fridge, some kitchen counter outlets, limited LED lighting and the internet equipment so I can check the status of the outage.
This outage is a big one, with 676 meters out on leg 4 (our feed) of the substation that supplies us. From previous outages, I know that the break is about 3/4 of the way back to the substation because that feed supplies over 800 meters. The substation supplies more than 1800 meters. The substation is 2+ miles away via a tree-lined road, so plenty of opportunity for a nature-caused outage. I've heard no sirens and, since Fire/Rescue and the local ambulance service would pass by our road on their way to an accident scene along the path of the aerial cable, it's apparently not a vehicle accident.
More than 45 minutes later, we're together in the family room with an 8" fan running from a 10AH battery that can keep it running 24 hours. The room is lit by two USB lights, each on a separate powerbank. My phone is being charged by another powerbank and it thinks it will be fully charged in 12 more minutes. By the battery monitor program I wrote for my laptop, I have more than two hours of battery life remaining (it's at 67%) and there's power in the kitchen to recharge the laptop if needed.
In a few hours the house may get a bit muggy, but I could set the central system to "Fan" and keep the air circulating. There's enough capacity in the backup system to run that fan for 15 minutes of each hour.
The very small UPS which powers the talking Caller ID unit (we record the names for those we want to hear from and the unit announces those names instead of just number) and the charger for the cordless phone in this room just shut down. I think it needs a new battery as power's been off less than an hour and a half and a new battery provides 5-6 hours of that low level of power. I brought up a 35AH battery and a 300 watt pure sine wave inverter to provide power to that UPS and the items it powers. Considering that a good 7AH battery in the small UPS could normally run those things for 5-6 hours, five times that battery capacity should make it until daylight ;-)
As I wait for the co-op to provide an ERT (Estimated Restoration Time), I'm enjoying a glass of cold tea from the fridge - it's nice to have even a small amount of backup power ;-)
At 11:05PM, the lights came back on - nothing from the co-op before or after.
45 minutes after the lights are back on, the co-op's outage page is still showing 676 meters out. I think their outage service needs something better than an old computer on a shelf in someone's garage...
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Post by papaof2 on Jun 14, 2021 20:53:26 GMT -6
While surfing the local power providers, I found this - be aware that today has been mostly sunny with a high near 90F, no rain, very little wind.
The other co-op in the county has multiple outages, some of which are getting long:
Two outages which are physically very close to each other and could be related from the times:
24 out at 13:50, ERT 18:00, still out at 22:40
12 out at 13:51, ERT 18:00, still out at 22:40
The others aren't related but are getting stale:
18 out at 17:37, ERT 21:45, still out at 22:40
66 out at 14:48, ERT 19:00, still out at 22:40
1 out at 11:32, ERT 15:45, still out at 22:40
I'd guess the last one is probably past dissatisfied with the repair service and approaching angry...
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Post by papaof2 on Jun 14, 2021 22:36:20 GMT -6
At 00:32, all those above are still out and they have
7 out at 21:17, ERT 01:30
1 out at 23:25, ERT 03:30
Care to bet which - if any - get fixed tonight?
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Post by papaof2 on Jun 17, 2021 17:12:13 GMT -6
Looks as though we could have power-affecting weather starting Saturday. Half inch during the day, inch overnight and another day of similar per the National Weather Service. However, one of the more accurate local weather guessers is saying "3.5 to 5 inches of rain" over the weekend. From experience, it's almost guaranteed that some trees will topple when no longer supported by the soft, waterlogged soil - even if the topple doesn't happen until a day or so later.
Stay tuned for details ;-)
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Post by 9idrr on Jun 17, 2021 20:01:11 GMT -6
Here, they're talkin' about "flex alerts" which is another way of sayin' that due to lack of acceptin' the fact that unicorn farts ain't enough to power everything, the heat wave may cause rollin' blackouts. They were predictin' it would be in the neighborhood of 110F today.
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Post by papaof2 on Jun 17, 2021 22:33:27 GMT -6
We have 92F predicted for tomorrow and then the rainy days bring highs in the low 80s.
We'd be OK with rolling blackouts IF they had a schedule that they more-or-less stuck to so we'd know when we could buy gas for the generator. We've not experienced that - yet - but I'm aware that many states are just one power plant failure away from having to limit hours or kilowatts.
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Post by papaof2 on Jun 18, 2021 2:02:43 GMT -6
The NWS has now issued a flash flood watch with the possibility of up to 6 inches of rain.
.FLASH FLOOD WATCH IN EFFECT FROM SATURDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH SUNDAY EVENING...
A tropical low pressure system will bring heavy rainfall to portions of Georgia Saturday and Sunday. Rainfall totals of 3 to 5 inches are expected over the watch area, with higher amounts to 6 inches possible over portions of western Georgia. Quickly accumulating rainfall will easily allow for efficient runoff and increase flash flooding potential. Creeks and streams may rise out of their banks and inundate fields, roads, businesses and other property. Street flooding could also lead to road closures.
If the National Weather SERVICE actually provided services instead of forecasts, we could sell most of the rain to the Colorado River area...
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Post by 9idrr on Jun 18, 2021 20:05:33 GMT -6
The NWS has now issued a flash flood watch with the possibility of up to 6 inches of rain. .FLASH FLOOD WATCH IN EFFECT FROM SATURDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH SUNDAY EVENING... A tropical low pressure system will bring heavy rainfall to portions of Georgia Saturday and Sunday. Rainfall totals of 3 to 5 inches are expected over the watch area, with higher amounts to 6 inches possible over portions of western Georgia. Quickly accumulating rainfall will easily allow for efficient runoff and increase flash flooding potential. Creeks and streams may rise out of their banks and inundate fields, roads, businesses and other property. Street flooding could also lead to road closures. If the National Weather SERVICE actually provided services instead of forecasts, we could sell most of the rain to the Colorado River area... Ya gotta remember, sir, that if'n a government service gets involved, that deal would have you payin' to have the rain go somewhere else, the folks "somewhere else" would have to pay for the water goin' to them and there's bound to be a couple of agencies in the middle their gettin' their share of the . The government will do they best to make sure everybody gets "serviced" every time. |
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Post by papaof2 on Jun 18, 2021 21:25:59 GMT -6
Current forecast for us is 1/2" Saturday, 2-3" Saturday night, 1/2" Sunday - or 3-4" in 36 hours.
I do have the water rescue emergency number written down by the phone: 1-800-NOAHSBOAT
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Post by papaof2 on Jun 19, 2021 20:16:32 GMT -6
So far today, we've had just over 1/2" of rain and I've heard one rumble of thunder - not enough to cause the lights to even flicker.
Elsewhere in the area, people haven't been as fortunate as our power co-op has 151 meters out - all West of us. The other co-op has 4 meters out. Georgia Power has 5200+ meters out with about 80% of those in metro Atlanta. Lots of their outages have "Extreme weather" as the cause, so the rain and wind have been much worse in other areas.
Not even a flicker after I went through and made sure that all the rechargeable stuff was ready for use :-(
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Post by papaof2 on Jun 19, 2021 22:00:23 GMT -6
Our power co-op is up to 200 meters out, the other co-op has a block of 270 meters out and Georgia Power has more than 10,000 meters out with 90% of those in the metro Atlanta area - and we have thunderstorms forecast for the next 4 hours...
So far, not a flicker on our power but that could be just a millisecond away.
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Post by papaof2 on Jun 19, 2021 23:41:41 GMT -6
240 out for our co-op, 171 in a single group. Georgia Power still at 9700 with a lot of ERT being "Assessing condition" and "June 20 6PM". The other co-op has a group of 34 out and a group of 4 out so the weather was hit-and-miss.
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Post by papaof2 on Jul 4, 2021 16:29:08 GMT -6
Happy 245th, USA!
No significant weather today, so few outages across the state. Today's power outages are mostly non-events, with Georgia Power having 7 outages affecting a total of 17 meters (out of 2.5 million) and our co-op having 2 meters out. Things aren't as good for the the other co-op in our county which has one outage affecting 43 meters. It was reported at 12:22PM and the ERT is 8:30PM. Hope the folks in that area are using the gas grill for cooking today and that they have plenty of ice for their beverages - otherwise their celebration today won't be much fun :-(
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Post by papaof2 on Jul 10, 2021 19:51:34 GMT -6
Today's thuunderstorms did put some people in the dark for a while (not us) as the power co-op still has a block of 8 meters that have been out for 4+ hours. They're several miles from us, so no glitches here when that outage occured.
The thunderstorms are gone and we even had a bit of sunshine before sunset, but we just got three widely spaced (10+ seconds) hits on one side of the power (same lights out and same UPS beeping each time but not all the lights out in one room so only one side of the power affected). Checking the co-op's outage map, there's block of 632 meters out (start time about the time of the first hit here) near a small hospital about 4 miles from us. I'm curious what caused that outage and how it generated a one-sided outage this far away.
I'd like to have a current vintage Dranetz Power Disturbance Monitor ($3000 and up, mostly up) to watch what's happening on both sides of the power coming in (voltage, frequency, peaks and dips, etc) but that's not in the budget. If I had $3000 to spend on electronics, I'd be much more likely to replace the AGM batteries in the solar backup system with much bigger LiFePO4 cells and have 3 days of backup power ;-)
The outage is along a busy 4 lane road with a lot of commercial traffic so a large vehicle might have taken down a pole carrying high voltage lines (didn't have the scanner on so I don't know of any accidents there).
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Post by papaof2 on Jul 10, 2021 20:06:46 GMT -6
While I was writing and posting the previous entry, the number of meters in the outage climbed to 980. Nothing (yet?) on area-related social media postings about the outage. If nothing else, a major vehicle accident will make the late news...
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Post by papaof2 on Jul 10, 2021 21:18:30 GMT -6
Since the previous post, they've whittled the big outage down to 148 meters and gotten those 8 meters that had been out for hours back in service.
Still curious as to what happe4ned - but not curious enough to burn gasoline to go find out ;-)
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Post by papaof2 on Jul 11, 2021 3:00:55 GMT -6
Those 148 meters have been out 6 1/2 hours at this point,and zooming all the way in on the outage map now shows this outage across the main road from the bigger outage. Be nice if they listed "Cause of outage" on their map...
Curiouser and curiouser - maybe I should have driven over to see what caused it? There might have been the germ of a story there - just from the physical size of the outage ;-)
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