Massive Power Outage

[Lucky]

1.4 million San Diego customers are without power, and the outage has now spread to areas east of Palm Springs, where temperatures are 109. The cause is unknown, but the gridlock is massive.

From mydesert.com:

A massive power outage spread across Southern California, parts of Arizona and into Mexico today, leaving millions in the dark.

The outage, which began at 3:30 p.m., has affected Imperial Irrigation District and San Diego Gas and Electric customers, which together span Imperial, Orange, Riverside and San Diego counties.

Most of the eastern Coachella Valley — including Bermuda Dunes, Coachella, Indio, La Quinta, Palm Desert and Thousand Palms — has also been affected.

Neither utility has an estimate of when power will be restored.

“We don’t know what happened to the line; all we know is that the line went out,” a San Diego Gas and Electric spokesman said during a press conference.

"Prepare to stay home tonight without power," a SDGE spokesman tweeted.

The outage appeared to be triggered in Arizona, where several consecutive hot days could have contributed. It looked to be a voltage instability in a transmission system.

It was the first known time the entire system the entire system has lost power in a major event, the spokesman said.

All 1.4 million SDGE customers across Orange and San Diego counties are still in the dark with no estimated time to restore power, the utility tweeted shortly after 5 p.m.

At least 50,000 customers were in the dark in Yuma, Ariz., and the outage also spread into Mexico.

The California Independent System Operator Corporation is helping to restore power, a SDGE spokesperson said. It warned “some areas” could be without power into Friday

Stay tuned!

Fantasy Springs Resort Casino near Indio still has air conditioning during the outage thanks to backup generators, the casino tweeted.

[Guest hitoallusa]

I'm glad that you are ok, Lucky. They've ruled out terrorists activity. Maybe it's because it's too hot over there. I'm enjoy a bit cool weather here.

[TampaYankee]

Employee removing equipment likely caused outage

By JULIE WATSON - Associated Press | AP

..SAN DIEGO (AP) — An employee removing a piece of monitoring equipment that was causing problems likely caused a massive outage that left more than 2 million people without electricity across the Southwest and northern Mexico.

Dan Froetscher (FRO-shur), a vice president at Arizona Public Service Co., says it wasn't a deliberate act that knocked out power at a substation in North Gila northeast of Yuma, Arizona. He would not say whether it was mistake or how much experience the employee had.

Power officials say the outage should have been limited to the Yuma area. They were investigating why it wasn't contained. Froetscher says they're not absolutely certain the outages are related.

The outage extended to southern parts of Orange County and San Diego and cities south of the border.

See original article at:

http://news.yahoo.com/employee-removing-equipment-likely-caused-outage-032706549.html

[TampaYankee]

I cannot imagine living in Palm Springs in the summer without a/c. ugh!!!! The only difference between PS and Death Valley is the number of traffic lights.

I have endured a number of extended power outages in the last fifteen years, as long as 60 hours. Most but not all due to winter/ice storms. Having recently gone through a 36 hour power outage with Irene, I have decided that enough is enough. The inconveneience of no water, no heat, no sanitatioin, no refrigeration with loss of food in warmer seasons is more than I am willing to put up with anymore.

I have been researching portable generators in anticipation of making a purchase. If any of you desert dwellers are tempted to pursue one be sure to do your research. Running a/c requires a lot of power, thus a bigger generator. Presumably you have a refrigerator to feed too. Lights and computers feed like birds.

There are energy consumption calculators on most generator sales websites to help you calculate what your power needs are. You need to do this unless your only care is running the fridge and lights.

An underpowered generator is sort of like a boat anchor with one exception. Trying to draw more power than it can produce can cause overloading and start a home fire. It will not run your a/c. And you do not want a useless piece of equipment that cost several hundred dollars sitting in a dark garage.

Expect to pay as much as a couple of thousand dollars (or more) for enough muscle to run an a/c properly. Electrical installation will run $500 to a $1000 depending on a manual or auto cut on. You cannot run big appliances off of extension cords. If you try make sure you have 911 on standby.

Oh and some of these thing suck gasoline like an industrial power vac using five to six gallons a day. Check for fuel efficiecy when doing your shopping too... and noise too. Some are much more quiet than others. You may not think this is important until you try to sleep.

Do your research and avoid the boat anchors.

Or for the same money take a few days in Vegas -- if they have power.

[Lucky]

It amazes me that one man in Yuma AZ could take down the power network of a whole region. No doubt those who oppose us have studied this, especially after the northeast lost power in a massive blackout a few years ago.

Power where I live stayed on, but just a mile or two away it did not. I do not want a big generator. It would probably get buried in earthquake debris anyway, or neighborhood thugs would see that I had it and steal it from me!

I did see an emergency radio advertised for $70. It had a USB port to charge your cell phone. But then, even in this power outage, cell phones were jammed.

No doubt my friend CharliePS will have all of this emergency backup. Now, if I can just get to his house after the quake or the blackout...but what if doesn't let me in???

[OneFinger]

One thing I've considered is getting a generator that runs on natural gas and automatically kicks in when the power goes out. I have a small portable generator that I use on my recreation property. It's great for a small trailer but not at all practical for home use.

[RA1]

Among all the other considerations about a portable generator is to be sure and run it once a month or it likely won't start or run well when you need it. Fuel goes bad after sitting around months on end although there are additives that lengthen the storage life.

Best regards,

RA1

[BiBottomBoy]

So, essentially, Homer Simpson shut down the west coast and Mexico.

[Guest CharliePS]

It amazes me that one man in Yuma AZ could take down the power network of a whole region. No doubt those who oppose us have studied this, especially after the northeast lost power in a massive blackout a few years ago.

Power where I live stayed on, but just a mile or two away it did not. I do not want a big generator. It would probably get buried in earthquake debris anyway, or neighborhood thugs would see that I had it and steal it from me!

I did see an emergency radio advertised for $70. It had a USB port to charge your cell phone. But then, even in this power outage, cell phones were jammed.

No doubt my friend CharliePS will have all of this emergency backup. Now, if I can just get to his house after the quake or the blackout...but what if doesn't let me in???

In anticipation of Y2K, I tried to persuade my partner to buy a generator, but he wasn't convinced. We did buy an emergency radio (we've never taken it out of the box) and some high powered battery operated lights. They have proved useful for reading at night when the power is out. My house won't be any cooler than Lucky's, but he can relax in my pool.

Power outages have turned out to be a fairly common occurrence here in the desert, which can be a bitch when they happen in the middle of a hot summer day or night. We felt very lucky to have avoided this one. If one maintenance worker in Yuma can do this accidently to a huge swatch of southern California, Arizona and Mexico, one wonders why terrorists haven't done it yet.

[Guest EXPAT]

I was one of the lovely people who lost power for nearly 9 hours last night. But fortunately near the beach the temperature was 70 and below. I just turned on my laptop and watched one of my DVDs until the battery went dead. Fortunately my lights came back on at 11PM. But that's the longest I've ever been without power to my knowledge all my life. What I found interesting is that none of my ice melted in my freezer during that time. I must have a well insulated freezer!!

What I also found interesting is that when the power was out I suddenly had 5 bars on my phone and I never have 5 bars on my phone. hmmmm I wonder how much the electricity grid blocks cell signals.

[BiBottomBoy]

When the power goes out they automatically boost cell phone signals so that emergency responders can communicate as easily as possible.