California PG&E "public safety power shutoffs"

[Salts]

I got the notice too. I'm not worried about getting gas, and it will be a chance to see how far I can push my old Nissan Leaf batteries on my Skybox. I am going to let my neighbors know that I will have power to share until the sun goes down. We don't have much wind yet in the Sonoma Valley.

How much capacity do your leaf batteries hold and how much do you need? Do you pull that much juice after the sun goes down?

[Ampster]

I got the notice too. I'm not worried about getting gas, and it will be a chance to see how far I can push my old Nissan Leaf batteries on my Skybox. I am going to let my neighbors know that I will have power to share until the sun goes down. We don't have much wind yet in the Sonoma Valley.

[foo1bar]

Test
I replied to this thread and it first said "Pending Approval" with a green shaded box over my post. Now it says "Unapproved" and its still shaded. And yet, when I posted the word "TEST" it works fine.

HUH???

Possibly you had a link in your post - and because you don't have many posts it waits for someone to approve the post/link.

I am curious about the area in White in the middle of the state

The white part in the middle of the map is the central valley.
It is a pretty flat area. It has fairly good road access. It has very little for large trees (some orchards, but not 80' tall pines that might be blown into powerlines). So it probably won't have power shutoff on lines that are in that area, as there's not a high risk of fire, and what fires could possibly start should be easy to detect quickly and take care of.
I don't know what it has for power plants supplying it - I expect that wires going in/out of the valley could be powered down if they're going through spots that could have a fire risk. So towns/farms in the valley could also lose power I think. IMO it's not really clear what exactly this map is supposed to show.

[Salts]

I would think the cell towers have backup systems in place. Once the phone companies start losing money due to non-service complaints, I'm guessing they'll install solar backup power systems or some other form of backup that can keep the tower going for an extended period.

When all those people start buying generators, they're going to be very unhappy when it fails to run after sitting in storage for 6 months or a year because of the ethanol.

[Mike90250]

The center of the state, is the food belt (central valley), which has had all the water drained, and sent to the citys for their use. So nothing much there to burn

SDG&E, SoCalEdison are also on the same bandwagon, cut the power to the people !

[J.P.M.]

Watch for more generators flying off store shelves starting about 1 hr. after the power goes out.

I'd also suspect the probability of house fires and other clamities may well increase if/as extended power outages meet ignorance.

I don't think this will come to a good end.

Mike: I can do little in the way of on site help but is there anything any of us can do with respect to temporarily assist. with your SPT/mod. chores if you become incommunicado (besides not haranguing each other) ?

Good luck,

J.P.M.

[SunEagle]

Welcome to the 18th century! Net metering shut down too. Guess the HAMs will become the
communication centers, though land lines ought to still work and perhaps get back some respect.
Bruce Roe

I am curious about the area in White in the middle of the state. Will that area also see power outages and if not then why?

[bcroe]

If you are not located in Northern California, you may not know about the "public safety power shutoffs" . This is caused by decades of deferred or ignored maintenance of the transmission lines and switchgear, which has started to fail in spectacular fashion during high winds. (the wind blows the gear down, or blows a tree onto the lines) Then fires start, whipped by the wind, and whole cities get burned.
So, now in high wind conditions, areas with "susceptible" wires, will be intentionally "blacked out" as the power is cut to cities. (link to yellow sharpie map)

https://www.pge.com/en_US/safety/emergency-preparedness/natural-disaster/wildfires/psps-event-maps.page

After the winds calm down, all the lines get inspected before they can be re-energized. So a 24hr wind event can take an additional 3 days to inspect before power returns. During that time, cell towers shut down, cable TV repeaters shut down, and all comms cease.
So Wed, Oct 9th, is the next forecast shutdown, and about 6 hours later, we loose internet. So, I may be off-line Wed - ??

The cities & Counties have issued pages of lists, of business that may be open, if their generators work. No gas stations will be selling gas !

Welcome to the 18th century! Net metering shut down too. Guess the HAMs will become the
communication centers, though land lines ought to still work and perhaps get back some respect.
Bruce Roe

[Mike90250]

If you are not located in Northern California, you may not know about the "public safety power shutoffs" . This is caused by decades of deferred or ignored maintenance of the transmission lines and switchgear, which has started to fail in spectacular fashion during high winds. (the wind blows the gear down, or blows a tree onto the lines) Then fires start, whipped by the wind, and whole cities get burned.
So, now in high wind conditions, areas with "susceptible" wires, will be intentionally "blacked out" as the power is cut to cities. (link to yellow sharpie map)

https://www.pge.com/en_US/safety/emergency-preparedness/natural-disaster/wildfires/psps-event-maps.page

After the winds calm down, all the lines get inspected before they can be re-energized. So a 24hr wind event can take an additional 3 days to inspect before power returns. During that time, cell towers shut down, cable TV repeaters shut down, and all comms cease.
So Wed, Oct 9th, is the next forecast shutdown, and about 6 hours later, we loose internet. So, I may be off-line Wed - ??

The cities & Counties have issued pages of lists, of business that may be open, if their generators work. No gas stations will be selling gas !

7DayPSPSPotential1007191020.png