alastairstevenson
Staff member
Quite a drastic approach to the risk of wildfires :
Northern California braced for mega power cut
Northern California braced for mega power cut
Northern California braced for mega power cut
- Thread starter alastairstevenson
- Start date
It's a bad, bad thing. No winners in that story.
I lived in the Silicon Valley (Santa Clara, San Jose) from 1975 to 2004. IIRC, PG&E was found responsible in the early 90's (I think) for a fire in Los Gatos that took out MANY big dollar homes...it was said (in so many words) that they funneled too much of their profits to shareholders instead of taking care of infrastructure such as trimming trees away from overhead primaries, replacing weak, rotted wooden power poles and adding circuits to detect downed or compromised power lines and to better switch and isolate local grids. These recent news articles sound very familiar..... 25 years later.
It's a dilemma...people want to live in the wooded areas, they want to minimize the cutting of trees because of their natural environmental benefits, they want their amenities including power and they want them at the lowest cost.....something's got to give. I don't blame anyone for wanting those things (who wouldn't ?) I'm just saying when you mix in some drought, high winds and add up all the factors in the equation, too often the outcome is disastrous.
We can't control the wind or the rain, only where we build, what trees we cut down and how much we keep them clear from the trees. Even after observing those factors, I guess that because overhead primaries can be slapped together or downed also, PG&E decides the only way to decrease the risk of fires is to cut power in some areas......I would not want to be in charge of that decision, no matter how it was arrived at or how much it was deemed necessary.
EDIT: The year was 1997 and reported here, before class action law suit and subsequent findings. Also, there is a website for class-action in the Nov. 2018 "Camp Fire". PG & E has been and is getting, hammered.
I lived in the Silicon Valley (Santa Clara, San Jose) from 1975 to 2004. IIRC, PG&E was found responsible in the early 90's (I think) for a fire in Los Gatos that took out MANY big dollar homes...it was said (in so many words) that they funneled too much of their profits to shareholders instead of taking care of infrastructure such as trimming trees away from overhead primaries, replacing weak, rotted wooden power poles and adding circuits to detect downed or compromised power lines and to better switch and isolate local grids. These recent news articles sound very familiar..... 25 years later.
It's a dilemma...people want to live in the wooded areas, they want to minimize the cutting of trees because of their natural environmental benefits, they want their amenities including power and they want them at the lowest cost.....something's got to give. I don't blame anyone for wanting those things (who wouldn't ?) I'm just saying when you mix in some drought, high winds and add up all the factors in the equation, too often the outcome is disastrous.
We can't control the wind or the rain, only where we build, what trees we cut down and how much we keep them clear from the trees. Even after observing those factors, I guess that because overhead primaries can be slapped together or downed also, PG&E decides the only way to decrease the risk of fires is to cut power in some areas......I would not want to be in charge of that decision, no matter how it was arrived at or how much it was deemed necessary.
EDIT: The year was 1997 and reported here, before class action law suit and subsequent findings. Also, there is a website for class-action in the Nov. 2018 "Camp Fire". PG & E has been and is getting, hammered.
Last edited: