[Alnitaka]

It seems to me that the only area that is having a consistent power outage problem is the New York City area, although California may also be a place with outages due to the high heat out there.

Here is what I get in eastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina (from Virginia Power):

Area...............................Customers.Assigned........Customers.Out
Northern.Virginia.Area............................771,268....40
Shenandoah.Valley/Western.Piedmont..172,701....39
Richmond.Metro/Tri.Cities.......................466,931..301
Southside.Virginia.Area............................67,371......3
Gloucester./.Northern.Neck......................59,070......3
Southeastern.Virginia.Area.....................669,093.....5
North.Carolina.Area................................119,137...26
System.Total.......................................2,325,571..417
The biggest problem is the Richmond area, perhaps because we had some storms come through the area last night. So I don't see any special problems in Virginia or NE North Carolina.

What is needed is a table like this for the entire nation, showing the states, perhaps, and the number of customers and number of customers out. Reports of outages won't work since for the most part only those with outages will report them.

[Novus]

The blackout seem to be spreading like the plague. Where I live in South Jersey the power has been going out almost daily for the last too weeks. I have the suspicion there is something huge we are not being told by the media about the true state of the nation's power grid.

[DantesPeak]

For the benefit of those not in the greater NYC area, the cause is balmed on the following:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'H')e said that 10 of the area’s 22 network feeder cables — each carrying 27,000 volts of electricity to neighborhood transformers, which step it down to 120 volts for household use and pass it along through secondary lines branching out to homes and businesses — went down in an unprecedented series of failures whose cause remains unknown.

[SupplyConcerns]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Novus', 'T')he blackout seem to be spreading like the plague. Where I live in South Jersey the power has been going out almost daily for the last too weeks. I have the suspicion there is something huge we are not being told by the media about the true state of the nation's power grid.

[gg3]

Okay, so approximately half of the 27 KV feeders went down.

What I see here is cascading system failure caused by "string & glue" installations and insufficient maintenance over the years. The first line fails, the load gets thrown onto the others. The weakest of those fails, the load gets thrown onto the remaining lines. One by one they fail like dominoes falling.

Don't blame the engineers and field techs. The responsibility for this type of thing rests with management policies that emphasize short term cost cutting at the expense of long term reliability. And no doubt the managers who initiated those policies were supremely well-rewarded for making the short term numbers look good. And now what we've got is indistinguishable in its effects, from a terrorist attack on the infrastructure.

Meanwhile, those 27 KV feeders could/should be upgraded to 34 KV or above. Either way a lot of streets will be getting dug up in the near future.

[dbuckley]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('gg3', 'O')kay, so approximately half of the 27 KV feeders went down. ... The first line fails, the load gets thrown onto the others. The weakest of those fails, the load gets thrown onto the remaining lines. One by one they fail like dominoes falling.

[rogerhb]

Don't forget the rusty D-link that failed a month ago, oh yes, in Auckland again.

[JustinFrankl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('gg3', 'D')on't blame the engineers and field techs. The responsibility for this type of thing rests with management policies that emphasize short term cost cutting at the expense of long term reliability.

[tsakach]

California is now at stage 2 electrical emergency. Friday’s peak of 49,036 megawatts set a new record for electricity usage for the state, breaking the old record by 2,500 MWs. According to the graph, California is now above 50,000 megawatts, and electricity usage is expected to peak at 4:00 PM PST.

ISO declared Statewide STAGE 2 Electrical Emergency for 07/24/2006
13:00 through 07/24/2006 21:00

California could see blackouts without conservation

"Conservation is absolutely necessary. It's not just key or guidance. It is absolutely necessary if we are going to avoid rolling blackouts," said Walker. "The best thing customers can do is conserve so we can divert power to make sure everyone has some."

"The grid is working," O'Donley said. "But it's critical that everything stay operational. We've got to keep our fingers crossed that everything stays working. They have been running full bore."

[Carrie]

We had a power outage in our area yesterday, in San Jose. Started about 2:30pm & didn't come back on until 8pm, then went out again at 10pm.

During the outage I ran to the local grocery store, but their power was out too. People were still shopping in there, but they weren't letting people into the freezer section (probably trying to keep the stuff cold). I bet they lost a ton of their refrigerated inventory. I asked the cashier if they had any ice, and she said that they were sold out, as was every other store in the area.

There was also a traffic accident at a nearby intersection because the traffic lights were out. I was definitely getting that "wheels coming off" feeling yesterday, and today too.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')pproximately 43,000 Bay Area homes are without power this morning and 13,000 of them have been powerless for more than a day, according to Pacific Gas & Electric Co. spokesman David Eisenhauer.

Eisenhauer said than 554,000 Bay Area homes have experienced some period of power outage since 5 p.m. Friday due to the extreme heat. The majority of those currently without power are located in the South Bay.

[Grimnir]

It's another one of those days: "California warns of rolling blackouts", "Massive blackout continues in St. Louis". "Queens blackout enters second week". "Gas driving corn costs up". "Heat prompts power emergency". "Drought-stricken Australia considers drinking recycled sewage". And that's without saying anything about Lebanon, Nigeria, or Somalia. If I'd been able to read today's news two years ago, it would have really freaked me out. And I'd be surprised that so many things continue as usual in the midst of it all...

[AlCzervik]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Grimnir', 'I')t's another one of those days: "California warns of rolling blackouts", "Massive blackout continues in St. Louis". "Queens blackout enters second week". "Gas driving corn costs up". "Heat prompts power emergency". "Drought-stricken Australia considers drinking recycled sewage". And that's without saying anything about Lebanon, Nigeria, or Somalia. If I'd been able to read today's news two years ago, it would have really freaked me out. And I'd be surprised that so many things continue as usual in the midst of it all...

[grabby]

Every person takes 2 kwh per day average in the US. That is electricy.

but each person drives 2 gallons per day in the us of gasoline or diesel aveage.

each gallon has 35 kwh per gallon
so in gasoline use we use 70 kwh per day

So I have a great idea.

lets take you average joe using 2 kwh per day and give him an electric car, which he can pulg into the grid and charge it up.

suddenly joe sucks 35 time more electricity from the grid than he used to.

(this also would help the electric stressed grid to straighten up)
whats with all these brown outs, I think if we just increase our electriciy use 35 times it would really help all the problems of peak oil and grid overload, dont you?

sure lets try it, never know what is going to happen till you try it.

[gnm]

Well said Grabby. Amazing the power locked in every barrel of oil! Wasn't it said recently that we use 400 years worth of solar/biomass equivalent every year now in energy? How do people think they are going to switch to biofuels and solar when we use that much? Even at theoretical maximum for solar PV we couldn't power the US much less the world.

-G

[shortonoil]

gnm said:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')mazing the power locked in every barrel of oil! Wasn't it said recently that we use 400 years worth of solar/biomass equivalent every year now in energy

[denverdave]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('grabby', '
')each gallon has 35 kwh per gallon
so in gasoline use we use 70 kwh per day

[gnm]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('shortonoil', '[')b]gnm said:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')mazing the power locked in every barrel of oil! Wasn't it said recently that we use 400 years worth of solar/biomass equivalent every year now in energy

[VMA131Marine]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('denverdave', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('grabby', '
')each gallon has 35 kwh per gallon
so in gasoline use we use 70 kwh per day

[grabby]

Exactly!
and about a ten fold increase of grid needs.

because even though you are more efficient now, you still will use an order of magnitude more electricty

Which is generated by oil inefficiently

bottom line
at least ten grids the size of our grid now, ten nitmes the nuke plants ten times the hydro ten times the coal plants

we cannot go electric.
unless we conserve an order of magnitude.

and if we could do that already we wouldnt have peak oil for a hundred years!

so,
no

electric cannot save us from our behaviour

[shortonoil]

gnm quoted:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'O')n average, it takes 5.5 gallons of fossil energy to restore a year’s worth of lost fertility to an acre of eroded land—in 1997 we burned through more than 400 years’ worth of ancient fossilized productivity, most of it from someplace else.