After Recent US Storms, Why Are Millions Still Without Power?

Hugh Pickens points out a report from Jamie Smith Hopkins that "The unusual nature of the 'derecho' is complicating efforts to get everyone's much-needed air conditioning up and running again as more than 1.4 million people from Illinois to Virginia still remain without power and power companies warn some customers could be without power for the rest of the week in the worst hit areas. Utilities don't have enough staff to handle severe-storm outages – the expense would send rates soaring – so they rely on out-of-state utilities to send help, says Stephen Woerner, Baltimore Gas and Electric's (BGE) chief operating officer. Hurricane forecasts offer enough advanced warning for utilities to 'pre-mobilize' and get the out-of-state assistance in place but the forecast for Friday's walloping wind was merely scattered thunderstorms. 'No utility was prepared for what we saw in terms of having staff available that first day,' says Woerner. But is it a given that a strong storm would cause this magnitude of damage to the electricity grid? 'Even without pursuing the extremely expensive option of burying all of the region's electrical lines, the utilities can and do take steps between bouts of severe weather to prevent outages,' writes the Baltimore Sun, adding that consumer advocates are concerned that utilities invest sufficiently in preventive maintenance. 'Tree trimming and replacement of old infrastructure — particularly in areas that have been shown to be vulnerable to previous storms — helps prevent outages.'"

Comments

Dilapidated infrastructure?

[bradley13]

Here in Europe, the news reports a very simple reason: a totally dilapidated infrastructure. Most power wires still hanging off of poles, subject to lightning, wind and falling trees. Decades-old transformers and switching stations that fail catastrophically, and sometimes cause cascading failures.

I haven't lived on the East Coast for decades - any power engineers want to comment on the truth or falsity of these reports?

Re:Dilapidated infrastructure?

[Albanach]

On moving to the States (East Coast) from Europe I was pretty surprised by the sheer volume of electricity cables strung in the air. For cost reasons it makes sense for the main backbone cables to be on pylons, but new build homes in cities seem to have all manner of cables strung from the nearest pole.

Not only is this unsightly, but it's a nightmare in a situation like this. Residential areas are full of trees. The lines themselves are exposed to ice accumulation in the winter and winds and lightning at other times. Power lines go down taking out small numbers of homes, but require substantial manpower to repair.

These lines should have been buried when the homes were built. Doing it retrospectively will, as the OP suggests, cost a fortune.

Re:Dilapidated infrastructure?

[chthon]

I am from Belgium, and I think that the move to burying lines underground started here in the 70's for new developments.

When we moved in '78, we were connected to a grid underground, but the other end of the street, which was much older wasn't.

There is still cleaning up being done. In 2006 we moved to a new house in an old street, and for the new development, one quarter of the street electricity was buried underground, but only this year the last remains of utility poles have been replaced by underground connections. This is, however, in a small village. In our previous house, in a more populated area, the electricity was already long underground.

Such works are mostly done when the sidewalks need to be replaced e.g., or when the sewage system needs an overhaul.

Follow FPL's lead

[trout007]

In Florida since we get nasty storms all of the time the power companies have full time crews that trim trees near power lines. They are going to have to do it anyway when a storm comes and it's easier to do it when the weather is nice for 3/4 of the year than when the storms come in the heat and humidity of the summer. All you have to do is call them up to take a look at a tree near their lines and they will take a look and trim it if needed.

The rest of the country might not get this weather often enough to spend the time to maintain the trees so when a freak storm comes by you not only have had lots of tree growth but it's growth that hasn't been subjected to high winds.

http://www.fpl.com/residential/trees/index.shtml

Re:Frequency is troubling

[cpu6502]

Buried lines isn't an automatic solution. I lost DSL/phone after a major rainstorm flooded the underground pipes. The power stayed on because it was above the water.

why are so much wires above ground?

[alen]

it's like the wal mart attitude of just buy the cheapest no matter what the hidden costs are of buying more products to make up for the crappy cheapest product in the first place

same here. dollar wise for the initial costs its cheaper to put up overhead wires. and the repair costs are probably low enough that digging holes is always too expensive.

and the fact that when you get to the republican areas everyone is always against higher taxes so they make due with crappy infrastructure

Re:Frequency is troubling

[muridae]

The breaks in water mains, the boil water notices, and the sewage treatment plant leaking waste into rivers suggests that even underground utilities were effected in this storm.

Simple Answer

[American AC in Paris]

Of course the utility companies can take steps between storms to upgrade outdated equipment and trim growth from around power lines.

The trouble is, we don't want to spend the considerable sums of public money it'd take to make that happen.

This should come as no surprise to anyone. Our utilities are a hybrid of private enterprise and public good. Since today there is no greater fundamental evil in the United States than the public sector and maintenance is a generally unprofitable annoyance for businesses, don't expect any more expenditure on energy infrastructure improvements than is absolutely necessary.

Re:Without power?

[stonedcat]

I'd be more than happy to hear wooshing if it meant sustainable power with less interruptions. Honestly I don't see what the big deal is here. Where I'm at there are 3 sets of train tracks about 100yds from my building and I get along just fine. Can't imagine that a few wind turbines would be that much louder..

confluence of effects

[AB3A]

I live in central Maryland. There is more to this than just a Derecho. We get every two to three years. They're not unheard of.

We had a mild winter and a cool spring. The winter did not have any significant snow or ice. So weak tree limbs didn't come down. There weren't many significant thunderstorms in the spring either, so no significant dead wood fell because of that. Here we are in early summer, and we get the first major storm of the season and all that weak and dying wood that hasn't been cleared out of the trees comes down at once. In many cases it takes the whole damned tree down. This wouldn't have been a big deal if it had been spread over a few storms here and there, but instead it happened all at once.

In so many ways, this was a perfect storm...