Community Chat

[Kachina624]

@Desert Lily    Maybe there was a problem with the lines feeding into the underground part.  When there was a fire in the facility, that was miles away.

[CalminHeart]

Most areas have above ground power lines. Only newer areas have underground lines in my state or anywhere I've traveled...I've been to 48 states. 

Unprecendented storms, winds, snow, floods, etc, will always affect power. It's called relying on 1950 (or before) power lines in in 2022 climate change storms.

Almost every state uses shared power grids (across state lines) which helps keep power going and allows easier fixes than if they had an isolated grid. Look at Texas. They have an isolated power grid so when Texas is hit, the don't have access to other grids to make it easier to get power going again.

[Imaoldhippie]

@Desert Lily .................demand for electricity goes up each passing year.  More houses, more new commercial buildings, more people using more and more power.  And now we are supposed to buy electric cars!

The power companies cant keep up with the demand, old power stations, lines above ground that are ages old are just some of the problems we know about.

Its just the tip of the iceberg.

[Jordan2]

I don't know. I often wonder why ConEdison doesn't upgrade their equipment, they know it will be hot come the summer and people will be using their air conditioners, yet we usually have a black out. 

[goldensrbest]

I don't know why,but we do here,what also i feel is just horrible people die in snow banks,in cars durning snow storms ,because the freeze too death.

[Desert Lily]

Hi @carlycat  Thank you for the in-depth information.

I still have questions as to the why, even with that great info.

Your wrote: Distribution lines "distribute" power to end users. They exit the substation. They may be underground or above ground. So, any disruption to lines along the way can cause outages; wind, trees, lightning, snow, ice, squirrels are a big problem!

I've lived in 7 states. For 22+ years I lived on the desert West coast with underground lines, and since April in a new construction home in PA with underground lines. I lost power in the West coast a few times; there was no storm then & it was about 60 degrees out in January. I lost power on 12/23/22 in this PA home with underground lines. The power was lost during the winter storm with 35-40mph wind. It wasn't due to excessive demand because it wasn't extra cold yet then, and thankfully power came back on when it was extra cold.

I've lost power with underground lines, so I'm still unclear as to why we have so many power outages and what should be done to prevent them.

[wagirl]

Not an expert here at all, but from the few things I have heard--the power grid in this country is too freaking old and antiquated.for all the technical advantages, the power grid is not up to par. will take trillions of $$ to over haul it and with the political climate now days--I would not expect anything to be done until something catastrophic happens--isn't that always the case?I'm sure there is alot more to it than my feeble atempts and way beyond my brain power too.

[Mindy D]

We have underground power lines. We still lose power often. I'm in S. Florida. One frequent cause is the small stations the power company has that contain transformers. The transformers frequently blow out and the power company races to fix or replace them. We also have storms all the time. I'd say we briefly lose power a couple times a week. During times of peak air conditioning useage, on very hot days, we lose power more. We reset our microwave and stove clocks all the time. They were flashing just the other morning, so we must have lost power during the night. We have an excellent power company, FPL, that excels in the restoration of power after hurricanes. They stay on top of things.

[bikerbabe]

I’m in CA and around here most lines are ABOVE ground. Below ground is exponentially more expensive. And you don’t even want to know the cost of changing from above to below. Billions.

Much of the nation’s infrastructure is antiquated and vulnerable to weather and terrorist attack. There are also issues of supply and demand in weather extremes when millions of people are using more power all at the same time.

[Sugipine]

Just like us everything gets old, run down, things break and fail. We need a makeover to the Nth degree.