How long does power restoral take

[papaof2]

Mostly sunny day, little bit of rain in the morning, no serious weather in the area. It's now 2AM and our power co-op has a block of 16 meters out - and they've been out since 5:30PM yesterday (8 1/2 hours - they don't list causes online). The afternoon was warm and humid (83F, 61% humidity). The temperature had dropped 71 at midnight but with 87% humidity.

What would you be saying about the power restoral crew when you're in the dark, hot, sweaty, supper may have been sandwiches or takeout, you have no working fans, you've gone through the ice in the fridge and there's nothing cold to drink?

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Had that happened to us, we'd have had to make changes in sleeping arrangements. One daughter and her husband stopped here for supper tonight and breakfast tomorrow on their way to see his mother and some other family over the holiday weekend and there wouldn't have been power for the A/C upstairs. I would have had help to move the small A/C from the garage window to a window in the house that could provide cooling for enough space to sleep all of us. Supper was in progress at that hour (crock pot) and that could have continued on the solar backup system. The inverter gen would have been needed to power the oven igniter to bake the blackberry cobbler but it could also have topped off the battery bank for overnight use - or we might have opted for less heat in the house and just had blackberries and ice cream for dessert.

Backup power not needed this time but nice to have options when you see what happens to other people.

[bretf]

I won't speculate on time for restoral. In the past, I've had sign problems with ballasts, transformers, etc. that've taken more than one trip to correct.
And in the current day, who knows if what is required is available, or when. I've recently had difficulties finding everything, from sheet metal, aluminum, steel, plexiglass, wire, LEDs, neon tubing, and the list goes on. Oh, and transformers.

We recently had a hellacious windstorm that knocked power out all over the valley. My nephew shared a video he shot of a ball of electrical fire, about 15" across, jumping at the top of a transformer on a power pole. 

We didn't have your humidity, but it was pushing 100 degrees.

It was Scout night so I was out until 9:30. Bedtime. For me, it was simple. I got a gallon of water from storage and went to bed. I figured if it lasted, I'd do more in the morning. At about 4:30am, the lights came on. Oh well, it was time to get up anyway. Checking the news, several parts of town were still without power. Trees had blown down, taking cables with them. Transformers blew. 

Fortunately, or not, my shop had power. Several people were late that morning.

[papaof2]

When I woke at 9:30 today - to the smell of bacon because the "kids' had slept in - that outage had been cleared. Other than that, no info on how long it took.

I grew up in Memphis where the summer temperature and humidity often fought over who was highest and they frequently tied in the 90's but with the temperature occasionally winning by being above 100 :-( And then there was the winter we had 14" of "No accumulation" on the Sunday before Christmas and I got volunteered to get everyone back home from the family dinner. I was 19-20 and still thought I could do anything. I did OK until the last house when I pulled out of the ruts and to the side of the road and felt the vehicle rise up on the snow. Good that those folks had an extra bed as there was no way I'd have tried to shovel it out in the dark - even with chains, the tires need to touch the road.

[papaof2]

A band of thunderstorms went by South of us but they apparently hammered some locations - the downed trees were on the late news. We heard distant thunder but had no power flickers.

It's a little after 2AM and Georgia Power still has 4000+ meters out across the state, but most (86%) in the metro Atlanta area. ERTs vary from 4:15AM to 6AM to 10AM to 10PM - yes, 10PM - almost 20 hours from now - and that block includes more than 2000 meters. Tomorrow's forecast is sunny and high of 93 degrees.

The message that goes with that outage:
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Estimated Restoration Time (ERT):
Jul 28, 2021, 10:00 PM

Outage Details
We are experiencing widespread outages. Power to most customers will be restored by the ERT shown.

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Note that the message has "Power to most customers will be restored by the ERT shown." No guarantee that any given meter will be back by then.