Wondering in the Dark

[gun sane]

It suddenly got pretty breezy here and the power went out over a chunk of southern Maryville around 6 p.m.  It's pretty common that this area is vulnerable to outages whenever the weather gets a bit unruly.  The lights didn't come back on for two hours.   I'm wondering if the city is still living in the 1950's when it comes to the grid system. 

In my career as an aircraft mechanic, I noticed that planes can't just park on top of a cloud when they lose juice.  Therefore, there's several options to get the electrical power back, most of it independent of how the pilots think it should be restored.  (Two of the most dangerous things in the airline business is a mechanic with a pen and a pilot with a screwdriver.)  Many of these glorified bus drivers are bigots--they love Germanic buttons labeled OTTO, but hate to push an Hispanic one labeled MANUEL.  Okay, pilots often don't have the time to react to scary failures--even if they get a bright idea--so critical systems are automatic.  If electrical buses go dark, the gee whiz computer will open and close switches to cross-connect generating power before the pilots have time to scream.

So why when a little windstorm comes along does it take two hours to get the electric thingys back the way customers like them?  Aren't there any OTTO buttons down at the power company?

 

 

 

Edited August 28, 2016 by gun sane

[peejman]

It blew really hard and poured here but we didn't lose power.  The storm cell seemed to materialize directly over my house.

My wife said downtown Maryville got a downburst, had some damage to buildings, and lost both power and water for a few hours. 

I'm sure the grid here is just as outdated as anywhere else. I have noticed that they do appear to do a lot more tree trimming in the fall than they used to. Guess they decided that's cheaper than fixing lines when everything is covered in ice. 

[Ugly]

Hahaha

i would guess that there is some form of government in charge of the grid. Hence the outdated system and lack of reliability. I'm sure more $ and manpower are what they need to bring the system up to the 80's, at best. A few windmills and solar panels and much more $ and their 80's system should be as reliable as the 50's system once again.

i too was an aircraft mechanic, fun times! Modern aircraft are truly incredible! Pilots are nothing more than overly trained taxi drivers. That's the only thing the a/c won't do. Auto takeoff, auto landing and everything else in between. The effects of a pilot smarter than the aircraft can be devastating. 

Back to power, buy lots and lots of candles!

[n0rlf]

Having lived in Florida for many years (Thank god I escaped back home) I was amazed that when new lines were needed they still are using above ground poles. Why in the world would you not bury the lines in a hurricane prone area? Same for everywhere these days. Bury the darn things, safer and provides for less outages. 

Oh yeah, cost too much! Always the reason. As power companies are monopolies and there is no competitor to go to I guess we are all stuck with the status quo. Kind of like our political candidates.

 

 

[partypilot1]

16 hours ago, gun sane said:

It suddenly got pretty breezy here and the power went out over a chunk of southern Maryville around 6 p.m.  It's pretty common that this area is vulnerable to outages whenever the weather gets a bit unruly.  The lights didn't come back on for two hours.   I'm wondering if the city is still living in the 1950's when it comes to the grid system. 

In my career as an aircraft mechanic, I noticed that planes can't just park on top of a cloud when they lose juice.  Therefore, there's several options to get the electrical power back, most of it independent of how the pilots think it should be restored.  (Two of the most dangerous things in the airline business is a mechanic with a pen and a pilot with a screwdriver.)  Many of these glorified bus drivers are bigots--they love Germanic buttons labeled OTTO, but hate to push an Hispanic one labeled MANUEL.  Okay, pilots often don't have the time to react to scary failures--even if they get a bright idea--so critical systems are automatic.  If electrical buses go dark, the gee whiz computer will open and close switches to cross-connect generating power before the pilots have time to scream.

So why when a little windstorm comes along does it take two hours to get the electric thingys back the way customers like them?  Aren't there any OTTO buttons down at the power company?

 

 

 

They do! Your house was auto load shed. I bet your neighborhood is located on the non-essential bus. (That's also what whinny aircraft mechanics rode to school on)

[gun sane]

1 hour ago, partypilot1 said:

I bet your neighborhood is located on the non-essential bus. (That's also what whinny aircraft mechanics rode to school on)

Yep, there's a lot of us retirees in the neighborhood that don't have to be anywhere at anytime.  And there's a good number of lazy mechanics too.  They're like electricity--they flow in the path of least resistance.  

[DWARREN123]

Money, it always comes down to money!

[Wingshooter]

8 hours ago, partypilot1 said:

They do! Your house was auto load shed. I bet your neighborhood is located on the non-essential bus. (That's also what whinny aircraft mechanics rode to school on)

 

My neighborhood must be on a main bus. The other neighborhoods around us will go out while we just get a momentary flicker. Auto BUS TIE I guess