Massive Power Outage - Page 4

TerranC · #31 August 16th, 2003, 06:02 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Captain Kwok:
TerranC:

Detroit was hit too...

It was?

*looks over yesterday's globe and mail's map*

Shoot. Never mind then.

tesco samoa · #32 August 16th, 2003, 06:27 PM

hi. i will be on and off ( i got power back Last night at 10 pm ) but were scheduled for 120 minutes up and down to about wed or thursday.

On another note the grocery store where i work part time had to get rid of everything. ( 700,000 dollars worth easy )

Captain Kwok · #33 August 16th, 2003, 06:31 PM

It seems Cleveland got the worst of power outrage, since their water supply got really messed up too.

My power was out from 4.15pm on Thu until 3.40am Fri morning. I was lucky that I'm on the same grid as an ambulance station and major telephone switching center, so I never got subjected to any of the rolling blackouts yesterday - even though all the area surrounding me was out for a long time.

I was annoyed by many people that continued to run their a/c and even did laundry in my building, while they were asking not to run a/c and major appliances so they could get power to all people. So selfish!

I just hope they find the cause of this problem and make sure it doesn't happen again! I also hope this makes people more aware of the need to conserve electricity. Us North Americans are so greedy when it comes to power, it serves us right to lose it more often!

[ August 16, 2003, 17:34: Message edited by: Captain Kwok ]

Mathias_Ice · #34 August 17th, 2003, 01:05 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Captain Kwok:

I was annoyed by many people that continued to run their a/c and even did laundry in my building, while they were asking not to run a/c and major appliances so they could get power to all people. So selfish!

I assume you are typing this up from your solar powered PC so as not to be wasting power that should be going to the ambulance station or telephone switch. I'd hate to see a human life lost because you were using up that valuable electricity in such a greedy fashion as posting a message on the internet.

Quote:

I just hope they find the cause of this problem and make sure it doesn't happen again! I also hope this makes people more aware of the need to conserve electricity. Us North Americans are so greedy when it comes to power, it serves us right to lose it more often!

You're joking, right? Feel free to be proactive in this situation. I'm sure some sub-Saharan clan of nomads would be happy to accept you into there family. Otherwise be very cautious of the rocks you throw around in you air-conditioned glass house, you might break your refrigorator or computer monitor.

I've heard conservation being preached for thirty years and while the concept has its merits, what needs to happen is to have the "Not in my Backyard" crowd cut off the grid, letting them fend for themselves in their own air-conditioned glass houses. New transmission lines need to be built, but mostly new power plants need to be built to keep up with our expanding economies and societies.

Captain Kwok · #35 August 17th, 2003, 02:14 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mathias_Ice:
I assume you are typing this up from your solar powered PC so as not to be wasting power that should be going to the ambulance station or telephone switch. I'd hate to see a human life lost because you were using up that valuable electricity in such a greedy fashion as posting a message on the internet.

Not quite what I meant!!!

I was actually referring to the fact yesterday that when their was only 50-60% of the electricity available and many people had been without power in their neighbourhoods for over a day that those who had power did not listen to requests to reduce their consumption so that people without power might get a chance to get some and perhaps save their food in the refrigerator etc.

I'm not trying to be self-righteous nor do I want to a Sub-Saharan nomad, but I do make some efforts to reduce my consumption. Until better infrastructure is in place, it's important to conserve to prevent brownouts, higher energy costs, pollution, etc.

I think many gov't institutions, industries, and big business could take measures that would reduce their energy usage and costs with no negative effect on their bottom line. They're the biggest offenders.

Mathias_Ice · #36 August 17th, 2003, 02:33 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Captain Kwok:
I think many gov't institutions, industries, and big business could take measures that would reduce their energy usage and costs with no negative effect on their bottom line. They're the biggest offenders.

I think the number I saw was corporations used about 40% of energy produced. You'd think they would be doing a fair job at conservation if for no other reason than to increase profits. Of course somewhere the cost/benefit ratio becomes the dominate factor. I see the gov't as being a prime place for us to conserve. I propose we get rid of about 90% of it as we really don't need it anyway.

I don't see the gov't conserving too much, let's face it, if they have a problem paying their light bill, they know where to get more money.

Thermodyne · #37 August 17th, 2003, 03:53 AM

http://globalsecurity.org/eye/black-...p_comp-nyc.htm

Click on the arrows to see before and after

Suicide Junkie · #38 August 17th, 2003, 05:23 AM

You know what those pictures say to me?

"Dude! That's a LOT OF CARS!"

DavidG · #39 August 17th, 2003, 06:04 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Captain Kwok:

quote:
Originally posted by Mathias_Ice:
I assume you are typing this up from your solar powered PC so as not to be wasting power that should be going to the ambulance station or telephone switch. I'd hate to see a human life lost because you were using up that valuable electricity in such a greedy fashion as posting a message on the internet.

Not quite what I meant!!!

I was actually referring to the fact yesterday that when their was only 50-60% of the electricity available and many people had been without power in their neighbourhoods for over a day that those who had power did not listen to requests to reduce their consumption so that people without power might get a chance to get some and perhaps save their food in the refrigerator etc.

I think the real problem is that few people believe this is true for 2 reasons I think.

Reason 1. A politician (Ernie Eves our premier) told us to do this. Does anyone believe anything a politician says or think they know what their talking about (see my previous post re the mayor of NY) It's even harder to believe the premier when he declares a state of emergency and that non essential workers should stay home and then the local governments are announcing they 'expect ALL their employees to come to work'. Who do you believe??

Reason #2: Does anyone really understand how the power grid works? If I really believed that turning this computer off would allow Mr Jones to have his power back I would do it in a second. I think the media coverage pretty much tells us they don't know how the system works and few seem too. They tell us things like 20 power stations were 'knocked out'. What the hell does this mean??? If this came from the Pentagon and they were taking about stations in Iraq it would be pretty clear. How they were 'knocked out' here is certainly not.

Suicide Junkie · #40 August 17th, 2003, 06:44 AM

Perhaps if they said:
We currently have only X MegaWatts of power... that's Y KiloWatts per household in the affected area.

Here's a list of common household items and the power they use up. Are you using more than your share?
Then end with something like: If you were to turn off three lightbulbs, then the Joneses would have enough to get their freezer back on.