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Winter nor'easter sweeping into Northeast

ChrisL said:
Did you lose power, and if so for how long? Just out of curiosity. I lost electricity last night at around 9 or 10 p.m. and got it back today at around 2 p.m.
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Nah, didn't lose power. I'm on a good power grid, we almost never lose power.
 
Tigger said:
Complacent and overly-needy. The lights go out for an hour and they're threatening to sue us into non-existance. The ones I love are those who constantly demand that everything be moved underground.... Until they hear what it would do to their rates for us to actually accomplish it. :)
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But once done....my, what reliability.

Suing over lost power? Dumb...

Complaigning about it? Human nature...
 
KevinKohler said:
But once done....my, what reliability.
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Let's look at that.....

Right now your average american pays about $0.16 per KwH. To even consider the move to all underground facilities, that rate would likely have to become something around $1.60 per KwH. For those mathematically challenged, take your last electric bill and add another zero to the end of it. Your $80 bill will become $800. It would likely take close to 20 years to complete the work as well.

In terms of the reliabililty there are plusses and minuses. Yes, there are fewer outages, especially in the first two decades or so, but when there ARE outages they tend to last far longer than in areas where the wires are aboveground.

KevinKohler said:
Suing over lost power? Dumb... Complaigning about it? Human nature...
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That's fine. Just realize that whining really makes these people look stupid.
 
Tigger;1061453868]Let's look at that.....

Right now your average american pays about $0.16 per KwH. To even consider the move to all underground facilities, that rate would likely have to become something around $1.60 per KwH. For those mathematically challenged, take your last electric bill and add another zero to the end of it. Your $80 bill will become $800. It would likely take close to 20 years to complete the work as well.
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Not when that cost is spread over a period of time. Plenty of places have gone to underground lines, and the residents there didn't have to "add a zero" to their power bill. Will it go up? Yes. But there will be a specific period of time that it goes up. Just like sewer, when they renovate crap there. Long term? It's cheaper, because it eleminates the need to pay for all the hours it take to meticulously trim trees, fix lines, etc. Not saying it's perfect, just saying. I've lived in places that have buried lines.
In terms of the reliabililty there are plusses and minuses. Yes, there are fewer outages, especially in the first two decades or so, but when there ARE outages they tend to last far longer than in areas where the wires are aboveground.
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I would not agree with this. I know you work in the industry...but I have found that during power outages, the time is around the same. Course, I'm not complagning, I rarely, if ever, lose power, where I live, even with above ground lines.

That's fine. Just realize that whining really makes these people look stupid.
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[/QUOTE]And it's my belief that the majority of all people are either stupid all the time, or, at the very least, stupid SOME of the time. Me included.
 
KevinKohler said:
Not when that cost is spread over a period of time. Plenty of places have gone to underground lines, and the residents there didn't have to "add a zero" to their power bill. Will it go up? Yes. But there will be a specific period of time that it goes up. Just like sewer, when they renovate crap there. Long term? It's cheaper, because it eleminates the need to pay for all the hours it take to meticulously trim trees, fix lines, etc. Not saying it's perfect, just saying. I've lived in places that have buried lines.
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Very few places have had overhead systems and changed them completely to underground. Most urban areas now maintain large underground systems, but few have a fully underground system. In the long term the system isn't really that much cheaper. All additional construction becomes considerably more expensive, time consuming, and litigous. It's quite difficult to do preventative maintenance on underground facilities, which means the first sign of a problem is generally when the lights go off. In an overhead system I can drive down the street and find the problem. With underground I need to get a test van and spend considerable time figuring out what/where the provlem is. Those underground cables also have a lifespan. Generally about 35 years, max. Then you end up having to replace them.

KevinKohler said:
I would not agree with this. I know you work in the industry...but I have found that during power outages, the time is around the same. Course, I'm not complagning, I rarely, if ever, lose power, where I live, even with above ground lines.
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Industry-wide, underground issues generally take considerably longer to fix.
 
Four photos from the blizzard:

Mamaroneck02082013-3b_zpsf35b477f.jpg


Larchmont02082013-1bnight_zpse1f241e3.jpg


Larchmont02092013day-1b_zpsd61c9304.jpg


Fairfield02092013-13b_zps24192068.jpg
 
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