Author Topic: Utility Outages (elec-gas-cable-etc) (Read 478777 times)

Wrightwood · « **Reply #60 on:** Nov 21, 23, 03:26:42 PM »

Power restored (Linnet & Elm)

EQC · « **Reply #61 on:** Nov 21, 23, 04:57:51 PM »

Power came back up over on East Canyon about an hour ago. Seems like the circuits might have been brought back on moving West to East through town...hopefully that's everybody now...

yodeler · « **Reply #62 on:** Nov 27, 23, 09:39:40 AM »

Is anyones power out near East Canyon. Nothing reported on SCE.

kingfish · « **Reply #63 on:** Nov 27, 23, 10:27:35 AM »

Maintenance Outage - Scheduled
Unincorporated Area - Los Angeles County
Start Time: 11/29/2023 - 8:00 AM PST
Estimated End Time: 11/29/2023 - 4:30 PM PST

Deadhead · « **Reply #64 on:** Nov 27, 23, 10:29:49 AM »

Power out at East canyon and Zurich. No mention on the SCE website.

EQC · « **Reply #65 on:** Nov 27, 23, 04:56:29 PM »

Today's is a maintenance outage in the East Canyon area. I did NOT receive any physical mail about it, but I did get e-mail notification a couple of times within the last couple weeks.

Email notification titled it: Outage # 000800279058

The emails indicated the schedule was 9:00am-4:00pm, but it is now close to 5:00pm, and all the houses around me still look dark.

When I left home around 1pm today, I did see some big trucks working in the middle of Sheep Creek Road, with posted detour signs...not sure if that was the Edison crew, but I assumed as much.

*EDIT:
I put that Outage Number (800279058) into Edison's website (https://www.sce.com/outage-center/check-outage-status) and it now says the start was 9:30am, and the estimated end time today is 6:00pm, with 886 customers affected, for "upgrading equipment." Last updated 5:09pm.

*Edit again: That same SCE site also says there's another planned outage in Wrightwood for Friday, 12/1, scheduled for 8:30AM-1:30PM. That will be Outage #800278443. Not sure what areas of town that will affect, but I (on upper East Canyon) haven't seen any notifications about it via mail or email.

With last week's unplanned outage, today's maintenance outage, the maintenance outage noted by kingfish above for 11/29, and this upcoming outage on 12/1, that's quite a lot for one small town in less than 2 weeks, and especially tough with the cold weather.

EQC · « **Reply #66 on:** Nov 27, 23, 05:35:48 PM »

Power restored for me now on upper East Canyon.

lwt42 · « **Reply #67 on:** Nov 27, 23, 10:13:29 PM »

Quote from: EQC on Nov 27, 23, 04:56:29 PM

With last week's unplanned outage, today's maintenance outage, the maintenance outage noted by kingfish above for 11/29, and this upcoming outage on 12/1, that's quite a lot for one small town in less than 2 weeks, and especially tough with the cold weather.

I know I'm a relative newbie (8 years), but I do question Edison's timing.

Maintenance outages on very hot days, and when it's very, very cold.

I have a small generator that handles essential loads -- 'fridge, furnace and internet. To minimize the total load, I use extension cords instead of a nice transfer switch.

I would (eventually) like a dual-fuel propane/gasoline unit because propane tanks are easy, run times are good, and you don't have to deal with old gas gumming up the carburetor.

Outages are frequent enough that some sort of backup seems worthwhile. This cost less than $800.

The reason for all the maintenance outages is to harden their distribution and reduce the chance of fire. Once they replace every pole with stronger ones, they'll change the lines to insulated wire. That's worth some inconvenience.

KW · « **Reply #68 on:** Nov 28, 23, 06:40:18 AM »

We just got an email notice yesterday for a planned outage on Wednesday next week. We are located on the west side of town about half mile past the school. I hope all this maintenance that they're doing keeps the power on when we truly need it.

EQC · « **Reply #69 on:** Nov 28, 23, 07:23:09 AM »

Quote from: lwt42 on Nov 27, 23, 10:13:29 PM

I know I'm a relative newbie (8 years), but I do question Edison's timing.

Maintenance outages on very hot days, and when it's very, very cold.

I have a small generator that handles essential loads -- 'fridge, furnace and internet. To minimize the total load, I use extension cords instead of a nice transfer switch.

I would (eventually) like a dual-fuel propane/gasoline unit because propane tanks are easy, run times are good, and you don't have to deal with old gas gumming up the carburetor.

Outages are frequent enough that some sort of backup seems worthwhile. This cost less than $800.

The reason for all the maintenance outages is to harden their distribution and reduce the chance of fire. Once they replace every pole with stronger ones, they'll change the lines to insulated wire. That's worth some inconvenience.

A notably more expensive option (but with additional year-round benefits too) -- we just added solar and a whole-house battery backup. Solar just won't work for many places in Wrightwood due to the valley/hills and trees...but our location is decent-ish, so even with the reduced sun this time of year in our little valley, the solar/battery has kept the whole house running pretty smoothely during these last couple outages.

There was a winter a few years ago where a rain storm knocked out power for a couple days, and the weather got VERY cold (I think it stayed below freezing during the day during the outage). Our only heat source was the small "gas appliance" fireplace, since the natural gas house heaters can't run without electricity, and we don't have any sort of regular/wood-burning fireplace built in. The family had a bit of an adventure huddling in the living room together, but that was also a good sign to us that a back-up would be good.

lwt42 · « **Reply #70 on:** Nov 28, 23, 10:11:38 AM »

Quote from: EQC on Nov 28, 23, 07:23:09 AM

There was a winter a few years ago where a rain storm knocked out power for a couple days, and the weather got VERY cold (I think it stayed below freezing during the day during the outage). Our only heat source was the small "gas appliance" fireplace, since the natural gas house heaters can't run without electricity, and we don't have any sort of regular/wood-burning fireplace built in. The family had a bit of an adventure huddling in the living room together, but that was also a good sign to us that a back-up would be good.

I remember the 31 hour outage. It was raining when it started, then switched to snow about half way through. I had my generator, and we did fine. We also have a fireplace.

I have a couple of small UPSes, mostly to keep electronics up during the first hour of an outage.

My issue with solar and battery is charging. It was pretty cloudy, and of course snow on the panels does not help.

I'd love a good whole-house backup. Solar is pretty cool too.

scwt · « **Reply #71 on:** Nov 28, 23, 07:57:34 PM »

Check Edison web site for rebates on generators, might help.

lwt42 · « **Reply #72 on:** Nov 28, 23, 09:08:18 PM »

Quote from: scwt on Nov 28, 23, 07:57:34 PM

Check Edison web site for rebates on generators, might help.

Edison seems to be pushing portable "solar generators" and the ones that are big enough aren't cheap.

Mountain Hardware stocks the 2000 watt inverter/generators from Generac, if I remember correctly.

The trick is knowing how much you need.

scwt · « **Reply #73 on:** Nov 29, 23, 07:29:26 AM »

I got the big one from Costco and it can run my central AC, I have it wired to the house panel so everything is hot but you can't run everything at once.

lwt42 · « **Reply #74 on:** Nov 29, 23, 12:32:22 PM »

Quote from: scwt on Nov 29, 23, 07:29:26 AM

I got the big one from Costco and it can run my central AC, I have it wired to the house panel so everything is hot but you can't run everything at once.

Generator capacity is something of a philosophy question.

Smaller generators have lower fuel consumption, more run-time, and lower cost, generally. Also, easier to move (and easier to keep the exhaust away from the house).

I measured and found I need about 1000 watts. My small portable is twice that, so plenty of margin.

Lepo · « **Reply #75 on:** Jan 10, 24, 01:41:44 PM »

Bump.
Another scheduled outage for 1-17-24 All day again. While I appreciate they are upgrading equipment and need to keep the lineman safe. This seems excessive.

Last year 2023 we had 7 scheduled outages:

6-9-23 ~ 11 Hours scheduled - 7AM - 6PM
6-12-23 ~8 Hours
8-28-23 ~ 8 hours
10-16-23 ~ 15 minutes
10-17-23 ~ 15 minutes
10-24-23 ~ 9 hours
12-6-23 ~9 hours

I think the 10-16 / 10-17 might have been reschedules and one might not have happened. I pulled this from the email notifications they sent out.

I don't think we had any scheduled outages the year before 2022.

Did something happen ?

lwt42 · « **Reply #76 on:** Jan 10, 24, 07:11:42 PM »

Quote from: Lepo on Jan 10, 24, 01:41:44 PM

Did something happen ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Fire_(2018)

52,000 evacuated, 85 dead.

As part of the deal limiting liability when power lines start a fire, utilities like SCE have to upgrade in high fire areas.

Stronger poles, then heavy insulated wires when the poles are in.

AlwaysReady · « **Reply #77 on:** Jan 14, 24, 12:30:40 PM »

Get the duromax 13k or 15k dual fuel or tri fuel if you can afford it. The 15k tri fuel hooked to your natural gas with a transfer switch you can buy and have installed for less that 5k.

Elk · « **Reply #78 on:** Jan 22, 24, 08:55:38 AM »

Phone lines/landlines from Frontier are out this morning in the Jackson Lake/Big Pines area.
Anyone else experiencing outages from Frontier for landlines?

Wrightwood · « **Reply #79 on:** Jan 22, 24, 09:21:42 AM »

Frontier phone line (landline) working at Elm & Linnet