PSA/RANT from MSF re: Power Outages

[Mass_SkinsFan]

Some of you know that I work for an electric utility company. Some also know that part of my duties in the Engineering department include service restoration analysis and dispatching during emergencies and storms. Well, we had a somewhat significant snow/ice/rain event on Friday that forced us to open the Storm Rooms between approximately 11am and 11pm. We're now getting creamed in the local press for our poor performance in service restoration during the storm. Unfortuantely, as per usual, our ability to restore service was severely hampered by our own customer's inability to use common sense and basic reasoning.

So, as a Public Service Announcement and Rant, I'm going to give you all a couple of pieces of sage advice for the next time you lose power at your home or business.....

1. If you have a high-priority medical patient who needs power for life support or ventilators, inform the electric company of this BEFORE the storm. There's paperwork that needs to be done to verify this need and make you a high-priority restoration. Telling the electric company you need power back NOW because Aunt Maggie is on a ventilator and living with you the day of the storm doesn't cut it.

2. Trees are lovely. They also LOVE to "eat" power lines, transformers, poles, etc... when they get covered with snow and ice. Keep your foliage properly trimmed. If branches are already on the wires during good weather, contact the electric company ASAP, and let them know that trimming needs to be done.

3. Know a little about the system. The TOP wires on a pole are the electric wires. We don't fix cable or telco wires down. We also don't fix anything on YOUR side of the meter, or in some cases anything past the connection to your home (called a weatherhead) for overhead services. Anything beyond those points belongs to YOU, and you'll have to get an electician to fix it. Also, please check your breakers before you call us.

4. Call ONCE to inform the electric company that you're out of power. If you're not restored in 4-6 hours, call again, ONCE. Calling 10 times doesn't make you more of a priority... just more of a pain in the ass. Also, give us proper addresses and contact info for the OUTAGE. Don't give us YOUR address and phone number if the problem is your neighbor's service wire.

5. Understand that outages are generally dealt with based on a system that takes into account the number of people out, priority customers (hospitals, etc...), ease of restoration (customers where a cutout simply needs to be refused will get back quicker than wires down calls generally), etc...

6. Don't LIE to us. If it's your service wire from the street to your house that's down, don't tell us the entire neighborhood is out. You're actually likely to be out LONGER if we think we're looking for a large scale issue than if we know it's a service wire problem. At least in part because when the crew shows up and sees the neighborhood has power, they're not going to look and see if YOU have power, since you said the entire neighborhood was de-energized.

7. Lastly, please understand that we're trying to get everyone back as quickly and efficiently as possible. Calling customer service multiple times to demand and know when you're going to get power back and cursing/swearing at them or us isn't going to get your power back any quicker. It's in our best interest to get you picked back up as quickly as possible. Believe me, we're not looking to have any more people out any longer than necessary. When you see three line trucks parked at the choke & puke, realize that they've probably gone about 6-8 hours between meals and cut them a little slack. Especially in the middle of the night.

[.Guy.]

Very true.

I hate dealing with power outages. Especially here in McLean, lots of trees and they are always falling on the power lines. Power goes out quite often and it often takes 5+ hours to fix it and thats unacceptable in freezing weather (last year we went 4 days without power). We ordered a 15kw Generac Generator. Now we don't have to worry about power outages!

It's always fun laughing at the neighbors when they see our lights on and everyones out!

[Mass_SkinsFan]

Very true.

I hate dealing with power outages. Especially here in McLean, lots of trees and they are always falling on the power lines. Power goes out quite often and it often takes 5+ hours to fix it and thats unacceptable in freezing weather (last year we went 4 days without power). We ordered a 15kw Generac Generator. Now we don't have to worry about power outages!

It's always fun laughing at the neighbors when they see our lights on and everyones out!

ITG, before you go and rip your power company employees for the length of the outage, realize that there's more to it than simply taking some electrical tape and putting the wires back together. Each downed section of wire is probably 45-60 minutes worth of work to put back up. That's AFTER the trees are removed, poles may have to be reset, the electrical system set up for the worker's protection, etc.....

If I remember correctly your issue last year was a major snow/ice event that your area is not equiped for. Before you get too testy about it, there were people in the Buffalo, NY area this past October who were without power for THIRTEEN days due to a snow/ice event. While being without power for four days is annoying and nasty, it could have been a whole lot worse.

Is your generator constantly attached to your main panel? Is it constantly on? If the answer to both is YES, you need to contact your local electrical utility company and make sure you're not accidentally backfeeding into the electrical grid.

[Pete]

1. If you have a high-priority medical patient who needs power for life support or ventilators, inform the electric company of this BEFORE the storm. There's paperwork that needs to be done to verify this need and make you a high-priority restoration. Telling the electric company you need power back NOW because Aunt Maggie is on a ventilator and living with you the day of the storm doesn't cut it.

I have even better advice for this situation. Get a friggin generator, and have it wired in with an automatic trip start system. The house I owned in CT had been owned by people who had an elderly person living with them that needed various medical equipment. There was so much stuff, the house had quite higher service comming in, so it had a very big gen set for power outtages. It would run the entire house once all the equipment was removed.

[PokerPacker]

we have a gasoline generator. we just set the thing up in our garage and run it too keep our refridgerators and TV running. and if its cold outside, we'll hook up space heaters.

[Mass_SkinsFan]

I have even better advice for this situation. Get a friggin generator, and have it wired in with an automatic trip start system. The house I owned in CT had been owned by people who had an elderly person living with them that needed various medical equipment. There was so much stuff, the house had quite higher service comming in, so it had a very big gen set for power outtages. It would run the entire house once all the equipment was removed.

The thing to remember with that sort of system is that the electric company needs to be notified when it's installed to ensure that you're not accidentally backfeeding into the electrical grid. You ever see an electric meter run BACKWARDS? It's an interesting sight. At least until the homeowner gets the letter from the electric company demanding that they remove the generator until it's isolated from backfeeding the grid and warning that if it isn't done quickly enough, that generator will be the only electrical source the homeowner has, period.

[.Guy.]

If I remember correctly your issue last year was a major snow/ice event that your area is not equiped for. Before you get too testy about it, there were people in the Buffalo, NY area this past October who were without power for THIRTEEN days due to a snow/ice event. While being without power for four days is annoying and nasty, it could have been a whole lot worse.

Is your generator constantly attached to your main panel? Is it constantly on? If the answer to both is YES, you need to contact your local electrical utility company and make sure you're not accidentally backfeeding into the electrical grid.

I was not ripping the company (Dominion Power) for the outages. At this point we are used to it and know there is alot of work to be done to get the power back on, so instead of having to wait, we just bypass this sort of thing by getting a generator istalled. And yes 4 days is not much compared to what others went through, but when you have elderly people spending a week with you and the electricity goes out, even 5 hours is alot of time. My friend went FOURTEEN days without power in 2004. It was pretty bad. I understand the power company technicians are working hard but getting a generator is the best thing you can do.

Yes our generator is attached to the main panel in our house and its always on. Once the power to house goes out, the generator comes on automatically. I am not sure about back feeding, but I assume everything should be ok since a licenced Generac technicians installed it.