Power Outages & damaged electrical appliances & computers.

Our rates have just come down from somewhere around 56¢ per kWh.
There's plenty of tiefing that happens here, too. Maybe not as much as Nicaragua.
Can't say.

I just came back from driving down Solberg rd and the pole the truck ran into, a few weeks ago now, is still laying there, waiting to be repaired.

Here it is mid Feb. and the majority of power poles are covered in vines, branches and tree limbs, transformers too, for that matter. Of course, our roadsides are also overgrown. WAPA would produce a lot less outages if they and Innovative who now shares the poles with their heavy cables did some preventive maintenance and pruning. They've replaced most of the poles and lines, twice on 2 islands after devastating hurricanes. That can't have been cheap.

I've seen so many beautiful views spoiled by the above ground poles we have here.

Buried lines cost more to install and maintain, and, on average, take longer to diagnose problems and repair. Often, backhoes are needed to fix. They are susceptible to flooding and corrosion damage. And all buried lines come above ground at some point. So there's still going to be outages caused by above ground damage. We lived with buried lines for over 14 years, but paid hefty taxes for the privilege. (And still had about as many outages as we did when we lived with above ground lines). Sure, the view is nicer. But you have to be able to afford the upkeep.

(tu) Exactly. This has been the issue all along.

Hey, considering they're always digging up the roads, they could save money.;)

Hey, considering they're always digging up the roads, they could save money.;)

Ha Ha! Good point.

The way to avoid electrical power outages caused by storms is not go digging into the ground, but rather reaching for the sky: There is a paper entitled

Tesla on Global Wireless Energy Transmission for Telecommunications and Other Purposes.

Today there are wireless charges for smartphone, and other devices. Transmitting wireless electricity is something we could have been doing years ago, it’s not a new technology. Power companies are resistant to change and will go to great lengths to maintain the “status quo” Even today they are working on ways to minimize the effects of solar energy by charging connection fees to the grid that almost cancel out any savings from installing a solar electric system in the first place. Some Power companies are even charging anyone with a solar electric system “Line Loss” That’s the electricity that lost in the wires by transmitting electricity over great distances, that’s an insane policy. Individual power companies have many different ways and going through great lengths to fight or discourage anyone from installing solar energy.

I was there and met with the Department of Energy in 1978 when the Public Utility Regulatory Policies (PURPA) was written and formed. PURPA forced the power companies to allow solar energy to be connected to the power grid. Net Energy Billing was one way to connect solar energy to the power company. A synchronous inverter takes the power your solar system produces and gives to your house first, then. whenever your system produces more than you are using, it sends the electricity back to the power company and runs your meter backwards. The power company is more or less your battery bank. With 2 meters installed, one to your house, and the other to meter the electricity you sent to the power company so at the end of the month, either you get a bill or the power company gets a bill.

Now, when PURPA was first formed, the rate the power company was supposed to pay for solar electricity was called the Avoidance Cost. The reasoning was, solar energy was producing enough power to avoid building a new nuclear power station. So, the power companies had to figure out the rate they’d charge people if they built a nuclear power station. With this supposed nuclear plant, the cost to generate and sell a kilowatt hour will always be higher than what they are currently charging to sell a kilowatt hour. In other words, they had to pay you more money for the solar electrical power you are generating than what they are currently everyone else. Needless to say, this pissed the power companies off, big time.

After PURPA was established, I sat in meeting with the Illinois Commerce Commission and the local electrical utility Common Wealth Edison to determine what the buyback rate for electricity generated from solar energy would be. Those meeting were hotly debated, with a lot of shouting from both sides, there were times when a reassesses had to be called so tempers could cool down. Those meeting got close to be an all out fist fight. In the end, the commerce commission did what it always does, ruled in favor of Common Wealth Edison. I think we got a nickel, ($0.05) buy back rate while Edison was selling electricity for 7 cents a kilowatt hour.

The Illinois Commerce Commission violated the Federal Mandate on how to charge for buying back solar power. What cracked me up, at the time in 1978, in the whole state of Illinois, I think I had the only wind generator. But it scared Edison so much they aired an expensive anti-wind generator commercial on TV. I felt like telling them, “Hey, I’m for sale, pay me the money your spending on your TV commercial and I’ll go quietly away” Just kidding, LOL. More than once a big shot from Edison would visit my house and check out my wind generator. When I started selling system, they visit the home owner and offer him a super low rate to keep from buying a wind generator.

The power companies play dirty pool whenever they perceive a threat to the way they do business. With the attitude and polices the power companies has, we’ve got all of our energy production in one basket. That basket doesn’t want any new modern developments. It doesn’t matter that with the technology we have today, power could be produced and transmit in cheaper safer way that wouldn’t be effected by storms or downed power lines.

With wireless electrical transmission, Outages would be a thing of the past. Believe me, the power company isn’t going to change voluntarily, it’s up to all of us to “help” them see the light.

OK, I'm off my soap box now, sorry folks, I get carried away when I have any dealings about the power companies.

(tu)(tu)

Good info. Thanks for sharing.