outage's

[lineman641]

been readin' in the paper about all the outages in st. louis.are the storms that bad or is their system just shit?..in Queens n.y they are having a few cable failures and thousands in the dark. con ed calls it mysterious?? what kind of answer is that?? anybody know the real story???

[dog38]

shitty maintence!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mike-E]

There have been alot of bad wind storms lately around my area. Just got back from five days of storm work on friday. Something like 290,000 customers out. The trre trimming needs to be kept up with a little bit better around here.

[CenterPointEX]

Are you just now noticing this?... It has been going on for a while... starting with the debacle on California... Not just in the newspapers but in the national news... Stories like x thousands of customers in x city out of power for second day... etc. Used to be... not that long ago here in Houston... that when the power was out over four hours... somebody had to answer for it... You think New Orleans was bad?... Wait til a storm hits Houston again... People will die... lots of em... and not from the storm itself, but from the aftermath... CenterPoint Energy / Reliant Energy / Houston Lighting and Power / Houston Industries / Texas Genco / NRG , has sold long term security down the river for short term gain just like the rest of em... http://www.powerlineman.com/lforum/showthread.php?t=963&highlight=David+Fleshler (showthread.php?t=963&highlight=David+Fleshler)

[hifihaxor]

hey, any of you south florida guys hear about the outage in north dade over the weekend? i heard the whole sub station was out... some kind of fire or something?? anyone know? the paper had a short article but no one knows which sub it was


recently weve had a few waves of heavy storms.. at a few points we had about 10,000 out acros the state... still sucks!

[lineman641]

http://www.powerlineman.com/downloads/Transformer%20Failure.mpeg

[topgroove]

More Blackouts Feared in California
California Sweltering: Thousands in the Dark After High Demand for Air Conditioning
By SAMANTHA YOUNG
The Associated Press
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Scorching heat pushed California's electricity supply to the brink Monday and threatened another round of blackouts as utility crews across the state struggled to restore power to tens of thousands of people left in the dark over the weekend.

Authorities warned that the eighth day of the heat wave could drive demand for electricity in California to an all-time high.


Meanwhile, utilities in the St. Louis area and New York City also labored to restore power to hundreds of thousands whose electricity was knocked out by storms and equipment failures.


California energy managers issued a "stage one" emergency, warning they were dipping into reserve supplies to keep up with the demand for power.


"We're not sure we can go as high as the demand is looking like today," said Gregg Fishman, a spokesman for the California Independent System Operator, which manages the state's electrical grid. "It's going to be moment-to-moment through the afternoon."


Monday's forecast called for high temperatures in central and Northern California of 111 degrees in Morgan Hills, 110 in Fresno, Stockton and Modesto and 109 in Bakersfield. In Southern California's Woodland Hills, the temperature was expected to reach 106. No relief was expected until at least midweek.


Authorities were looking into at least eight deaths in the smoldering Central Valley that may have been related to the heat. Among the victims was a Stockton nursing home patient who died from heat-related stress on Sunday after the Beverly Healthcare Center's air conditioning gave out, said police spokesman Pete Smith.


Tens of thousands of homes and businesses lost power in California on Sunday because of heavy electricity use and high temperatures that caused transformers and other equipment to overheat.


Some 54,000 customers in Northern California still were without electricity, including 14,000 in the San Jose area, according to Pacific Gas & Electric. About 20,000 Los Angeles customers also remained without electricity.


In Arizona, heat was believed to have contributed to the deaths of two homeless men in Phoenix over the weekend.


The deaths came during three days of record-breaking temperatures in Phoenix. The temperature soared to 114 degrees Sunday, breaking the record of 112 set in 1906.


Meanwhile, in St. Louis, about 231,000 homes and businesses were still without electricity Monday, down from the more than a half-million that were left in the dark last week after strong storms knocked down power lines. Four deaths in the region were attributed to the storms or the heat.


Ameren Corp. Vice President Richard Mark said Monday that 90 percent of those without power could have the lights back on by Tuesday, with the rest expected to be back up by Wednesday.


The power company has been running TV commercials asking people to be patient. Some 4,000 utility workers from as far away as Arizona are restoring power around the clock.


In New York, thousands of Queens residents were facing their second week without power because of a blackout that at one point affected 25,000 customers. By Monday morning, electricity had been restored to about 22,000 of those homes, buildings and businesses, Consolidated Edison said.




Associated Press Writers Christina Almeida in Los Angeles, Marcus Wohlsen in San Francisco, Jeff Douglas in St. Louis and Karen Matthews in New York contributed to this report.
__________________

[Lnemn's Mom]

We've had quite a bit after the storms from the last couple weeks. Mine was out all day on Saturday. Seems the trees are laying across the lines in many areas and have been there for a long while, even some of the poles are leaning across the roadway that are slipping with some of the hillsides (this condition is present all across our area and they've been there for at least 3 or 4 years, with nothing done to them until the power goes out.) I remember the good old days back when the tree trimming outfits went around every summer/spring cutting the trees out of the powerline right of ways. Now, the houses are right up against them and the brush/trees are growing and nothing is being cut back. I would think that the contractors are extremely happy as they put in some long hours in my area over the weekend, trying to get us restored. How nice it must be not to do any of the maintenance till the power goes out. It needs to go back the to "OLDEN" days when there were enough company men with the power companies to keep the service in good shape, and the company cut the right of ways out before they caused major problems. Was it that many years ago, geez, seems like only yesterday. And, back then, we were hardly ever out of power because of trees across the lines. :D

[Eric]

Just a update, but a member of the STL ameren team was killed today when he steped on a energized line. A contractor was also seriously injured today, and was air lifted to the hospital. Very sad but true. I am just glad Al Sharpton had a protest today claiming the workers were restoring power to the upper class first. What a ass.

[a78jumper]

Major storm passed through here late Wednesday, spawning tornadoes through out Ontario. 50000 people still without power three days later, mainly north of Toronto in cottage country.

[loodvig]

Every heat wave is the same here. The engineers send us out to see if the cap banks are all online. Last summer we had a 23kv line down below 20kv! They had to scramble to find 4 cap banks to hang in a hurry.
Now I'm no engineer but I do know that every July/August it's gonna get real hot! This summer I asked an engineer how these heat waves sneak up on them. I got the 'deer in the headlites' look! LOL

[WFO]

I remember the good old days back when the tree trimming outfits went around every summer/spring cutting the trees out of the powerline right of ways. ....... How nice it must be not to do any of the maintenance till the power goes out. :D

Everytime we whip out a chainsaw the homeowner whips out his lawyer. We spend more time in court than trimming trees.
The great thing about storms is even the A....hole lawyer will let you trim if HE'S the one out of power.

[highliner05]

the problem is either bad mant. or no mant.

[CenterPointEX]

.................................................. .................................................. ...............................................

[BigClive]

Everytime we whip out a chainsaw the homeowner whips out his lawyer. We spend more time in court than trimming trees.
The great thing about storms is even the A....hole lawyer will let you trim if HE'S the one out of power.

Then in the words of Captain Picard.... "Make it so." :D

[20x]

641, where is that video from?

[duckhunter]

It is my experience that more utilites go ahead and fight the court fight. We do and have never lost a lawsuit for tree trimming. Just be ready to go to court prepared. You need experts on OSHA for safe working clearances for workers, people from National Arbor Day Federation on what is the acceptable trees for rights of ways. And folks from other utilities that do trim properly. Then you convince the judge that because of the frivolous nature of the case, you should be reimbursed. When that happens you publish it in your utility magazine and try to get the local newspaper to cover the story. You get a lot less problems when the word gets out that you are willing to go to court.

[shaun]

Every heat wave is the same here. The engineers send us out to see if the cap banks are all online. Last summer we had a 23kv line down below 20kv! They had to scramble to find 4 cap banks to hang in a hurry.
Now I'm no engineer but I do know that every July/August it's gonna get real hot! This summer I asked an engineer how these heat waves sneak up on them. I got the 'deer in the headlites' look! LOL

Ain't that the truth!! Then when the weather breaks towars Sept/Oct and the high voltage trouble calls start rollin in...cracks me up. Rheostat's on 4 kv bumped up in the beginning of summer to help and then never brought back down when the load requirments change. Opps..

Customer," I think my house got hit by lightning because all my stuff is burnin up and there's a funny electric smell. My DVD player is toasted and the plasma is just not the same for some reason."

Me,"damn lightning." (130+v to ground 260+ together) Deer in the headlights is right!! LOL!!

[shaun]

BTW, whoever said maintenance is 100 % correct. That aspect of this job is history it seems. Is there some type of seperate account or something regarding storm restorations? Kinda like insurance or something because it seems that they wait till all hell breaks loose and towards the end of a cleanup, we're out changing what I'd consider normal trouble work or more bluntly put, maintenance. I wonder if they have a seperate account that they draw from for this?

[20x]

Maintenance? In my part of FL. maintenance is when something is rebuilt after it burns down or blows down. As far as that "normal" work during restoration, it goes to the storm account, then the utiltiy charges it's customers a surcharge because the storm cost them so much.

[shaun]

It's dirty book keeping. This job is getting worse all the time.

[mrnick]

Maintenance on the national capitols electric system/surrounding Maryland suburbs, are only when a storm hits and wipes everything out. We also have a major "leaning" pole problem here....it's really sad.

[mrnick]

CP,
You were in DC last week, what did you think of the poles around here? I want someone else's opinion besides mine lol.

[edski104]

look around,brothers. all you can see are more and more outages,and longer restoration times. you can get the contractors to help,but more than likely,their off chasing another storm. hire more help? hell,then the top suits wouldn't get as big a bonus this year. when will the people wake up? when the damned IBEW goes on a NATIONAL campain to educate the country as to what is happening to the electrical grid being taken over and no work being done on it. AND WHY. the stinking almighty dollar that everyone will sell his or her soul for.look at national grid,a british company that owns the entire northeast of the united states electrial system. who's the fool.:mad:

[2ndGenHopeful]

been readin' in the paper about all the outages in st. louis.are the storms that bad or is their system just shit?..in Queens n.y they are having a few cable failures and thousands in the dark. con ed calls it mysterious?? what kind of answer is that?? anybody know the real story???

AmerenUE's storm response to the July 2006 and November/December 2006 outages was good - the manpower they put on restoration using their own workers and calling in aid through mutual aid arrangements was adequate. Ameren's network isn't in bad shape except when you factor in their tree trimming/vegetation management policy. Years ago they neglected their trimming responsibilities and got in some hot water with the MO PSC. Since that time they have stepped up on trimming dutites and maintaining the cycle but before the storms of last summer - it was going to take them until 2008 to catch up with the backlog of trimming.

Ameren refuses to take any blame for trimming. CEO Gary Rainwater goies on the news and talks about municipality and end user responsibility to keep their service clear on their property (which is absolutely true and correct) and further states that Ameren's solution (and the only viable one) is to put all service underground and it would be at the end user's expense. Whoa - talk about a PR night mare.

ANother thing to keep in mind - like many cities with networks that date back to the middle part of the 20th century, residential metro areas have mature trees in very close proximity to secondary distribution. Very little is underground in the city limits. That - combined with bad tree trimming policy in the past that has not yet been fully corrected - means major outages for long periods of time.

St. Louis saw 24 hours of sleet, freezing rain and steady winds. In July, we saw 60 - 70 mph SUSTAINED winds for long periods of time. Ameren is not to blame for the weather - but they need to accept their responsibility for maintenance and vegetation management. As a side note - IBEW Local 2 insiders have been telling Ameren to correct their tree trimming policy since the storms in July - and according to Local 2 members, laid off 18 tree trimming crews just days before the November storm.

Sorry for the long winded editorial - but I am excited to see St. Louis area events discussed on this board - any one else out in St. Louis send me a private message or email address.

[mrnick]

2ndGen,
I also agree that Ameren has a good system. Only been through AmerenUE once, liked the system very much.

Come over here during a storm, 25mph might leave 10,000 customers out LOL!
I mentioned that we have a leaning pole problem on another subject, we also have right of way tree triming problems, no one trims the damn trees. The 69kV sub-trans system are not allowed to have a right of way, I need to take some pictures sometime and post them. But with the area where I live(montgomery county md - wash. dc suburb), there is a law in regards to trees and preserving them or whatever....some lame law. Also, with the 230kV system, there are insulators that have been shot out by vandals, have reported the problem 4 times, nothing has been done. And part of the capitol in the "georgetown" section had manholes blowing up randomly. I don't really see rotted poles, probably because the wind has blown most of the older ones down....it's sad, and yet the state of maryland is approving a rate increase to help fund "maintenance" costs. The meter department with this company is also very poor at securing the meters. The rate increase is just a way for exec's to get money it seems like.

[shaun]

....it's sad, and yet the state of maryland is approving a rate increase to help fund "maintenance" costs. The meter department with this company is also very poor at securing the meters. The rate increase is just a way for exec's to get money it seems like.

That's basically it. These older guys on here have seen it gone from good to bad to dipshits. It's all about providing earnings for those investors. If you're lucky enough to get a stock match from where you work, great, but we're talkin about big time players that have millions to gain or loose, not our stupid little couple of shares. F^uck, I'm about to stop carin anymore. Let the system go to hell, fook it. Sorry guys, I'm drinkin and pretty much tired of hearing the typical BS from work and watchin GS having 100M$ bonuses to people who trade my money and yours.

[scammy]

we just had a electrical contact,,,,,,,,,as a result ,we are now going ,,full rubber ground to ground,,from cradel to cradel,,,our company is behind us and says it is ok to take out the branchline to make repairs,,,,,we will see how long this last,,,,scammy

[graybeard]

I think most uts would rather the meters not turn and have cust. in the dark rather than hire enough help to safely do hot work.

[lineman345]

its upper managerment pockets that they are worried about

[shaun]

This thread should be titled. A dieing breed Maybe then those douche bags will understand who really provide them with their bigtime bonuses and lights for the customers. You know what else pisses me off is some the my brothers who think they are better than everyone else and are owed something. Those guys can kiss my ass as well because IMO they are no better than the CEO's. We all see it all the time, those that are out consistantly transferring junctions while the same ole boob is hangin single phase pots or cuttin in and UG riser pole. Makes ya shake your head sometimes.. We're sometimes, our worst enemies. (bit off topic guys, sorry)