City of Detroit Dept of Public Lighting Blackout today

[MidTownMs]

Where were you when the lights went out?

http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news...ls-20110908-mr

[Meddle]

Not watching FAUX news, that's for sure.

I caught part of the story on the Detroit News and Freep sites though. Isn't this the second time [[at least) in just a few weeks?

[HistoryNotHisStory]

Pld should have been privatize and its assets sold 20 years ago.

In 1990 they lost their major accounts with the water dept.

When coleman made that agreement, pld was done.

[DetroitPole]

I was at work. We lost power. Everyone was sent home after sitting in the dark for two hours.
Yes, the second time this summer. Huge blow to productivity. We brag about Wayne State University and the Cultural Center all the time, but the lights can't even be kept on. This is truly a third world city, I thought, shaking my head as I walked around the halls with a flashlight. An entire day we absolutely needed to get vital work done, lost.
Welcome to skewl, Wayne State students. Many of you are from the suburbs, across the country, or overseas. As you can see, what you have heard about Detroit is true. We are an absolute, disgraceful wreck.
Best was the response of the city and PLD. Well, there was no response. No one answered their phones. You couldn't get through to anyone. They must have been out "doing the best they can."
Meanwhile the street lights on E. Outer Drive have been out for a year now, East Warren was out as of last night.
The point is that these people, whatever their excuse, cannot, almost inexplicably, provide the basic service they are charged with providing. This absolutely must change. Yesterday. I don't care if everyone has to be fired and the whole outfit handed over to DTE or nationalize the fucking thing. It is an absolute wreck and downright dangerous.

[English]

We finally were up and running in my corner of WSU by 2:30. I held class as usual this evening.

I'm sure that the system will eventually be privatized. Too much is at stake for the usual suspects to engage in the usual excuses and the usual shenanigans. Our city [[and state, and nation's) infrastructure is dated. Instead of investing in public works, we've decided to be good little laissez-faire, late stage plutocrats. It's almost as if we chose to cannibalize the civilization built by the Greatest Generation, instead of tightening the belts in order to build one of our own to pass down to our children.

[313rd]

My friend who teaches in West Bloomfield District, lost Power on their first day back for two hours earlier this week.

[kraig]

Pld should have been privatize and its assets sold 20 years ago.

In 1990 they lost their major accounts with the water dept.

When coleman made that agreement, pld was done.

And please, let's ignore the fact that DTE has had thousands without power, continuously, the entire summer. Right now DTE isn't faring any better than PLD.

[Rocko]

From today's Detroit News:

September 09. 2011 1:00AM
Power failures prompt outrage

Residents losing patience with aging system's problems

Mike Wilkinson, Darren A. Nichols and Jennifer Chambers/ The Detroit News

Detroit— After power failures Thursday zapped the Detroit Public Schools and shuttered the Detroit Institute of Arts and the main branch of the Detroit Public Library, simmering anger resurfaced toward the city's public lighting system amid fears it is on the brink of collapse.

Separate incidents contributed to Thursday's woes, as a power pole snapped in west Detroit, closing four schools, and a substation malfunction near Midtown took out electricity to public buildings in that area, including dozens of schools. That prompted DPS to close the remainder of its 130 buildings early on just the third day of the new school year.

DPS said Thursday night that it would decide today whether to hold classes.
That the power failed again is no surprise. A 24-hour outage darkened many of downtown's public buildings during a hot spell in June. Residents complain that street lights and traffic signals routinely don't work. And if the clouds unload, watch out.

"You know when you get a good rain it may go out," said Shawn Crump, a business representative for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 58, which represents about 25 electricians in the Detroit Public Lighting Department.

"Really, there's a need for infrastructure repairs. Anything short of that is a Band-Aid. Nothing can be fixed short of infrastructure upgrades and putting [[in) enough people to maintain the system."

The city public lighting department is responsible for providing electricity to 900 federal, state and local public buildings, as well as to nearly half of the city's 85,000 streetlights. Yet the city's own audit of the department admits the aging system is "inadequate" and needs a $300 million infusion.

Thursday, the culprit was "splicing," where water got into the lines, said Chris Brown, the city's chief operations officer. A feeder line at a power substation near Wayne State University went out Thursday morning and a second line at that station failed shortly thereafter, he said.

That caused power to go down about 12:30 p.m.; most power was restored by 4 p.m. It's similar to what caused the power outage about six months ago, he said.
"The grid is old. There's no doubt about that," Brown said. "We need substantial capital expenses to put back into it."

For a city struggling to pay its employees, the money isn't there. And that may mean power failures are more frequent, not less, officials acknowledged.

"It's scary," said Andrena Sasser, 24, who has lived on Van Dyke in the West Village for four years. The street lights there haven't worked for weeks and, in some cases, months, she said.

"You can't see anything, and you never know who's out there," Sasser said. "If my porch light's on, it's better than nothing, but at night when I'm coming home or leaving, it's not good. Why have these lights been out for so long? I don't understand it."

The city has struggled for more than a decade to keep the city's 85,000 streetlights on. With so many lights out, many are concerned about crime.

"I've been here for seven months and the streetlights haven't been on in all this time," said Norm Williams, 51, who lives near the corner of Van Dyke and Agnes. "It gets really dark at night. You can't see."

Poor timing for schools

For the school district, the disruption comes at a bad time. Power outages caused four school closures on Tuesday, the first day of classes, and two more on Wednesday.

Although the outages Thursday hit two dozen schools, power at others was spotty, said Steve Wasko, district spokesman.

"Honestly, it comes and goes. Some come back on, go off again, some partial, some low voltage, a mixed bag," Wasko said.

The district said in a statement Thursday evening that power was back at all schools except Gardner Elementary. Students there will be moved to Mae C. Jemison school today.

DPS took the whole system down, even though most schools were unaffected, a decision that upset some parents who rushed to pick up their children early on Thursday afternoon.

"I don't understand this. I think it's a big inconvenience," parent Sherie Walker said outside Chrysler Elementary School, where she was picking up her son. She could see the lights working inside.

"I work in Farmington Hills and they told me to come pick him up in an hour, so I did 90 on two wheels to get here."

DPS officials said the power failures are another hurdle for a district struggling to get students to school the first week of classes. Tuesday, just 55 percent of eligible children attended the first day of school.

"There's never a good time for students to have to miss school, but having to lose valuable time at the beginning of the year, at the very moment that we are working so hard to tell parents to focus on attendance, is challenging for us," Wasko said.

Separate systems

The future of the city's 100-year-old electrical system has been debated for decades and DTE has been in talks about privatizing the system. Talks have not moved past where they were in June, DTE spokesman Alejandro Bopido Memba said Thursday.

There are two power grids in the city. One, run by the lighting department, supplies electricity to the street lights, traffic signals and public buildings.

The other is DTE's system that serves residential and commercial customers.
When the public system goes down, homes and businesses are not affected.

Council President Pro Tem Gary Brown, who is on a personal trip to Jerusalem, has frequently criticized the lighting department. Reached Thursday, Brown said lighting is the city's top public safety issue, and that he will address the issue when he returns to Detroit next week.

"Regardless if it was the major cause of today's outage, it still does not negate the fact the infrastructure is crumbling," Brown said. "If not today, then it will be another inappropriate time. It's going to have a devastating effect on the city. …

"I've been very vocal about that's a business we need to get out of."

For Nicholas Burns, an 8-year-old at Chrysler Elementary School, forced to go home early Thursday afternoon, the power failure hindered his education.

"I missed music today," he said. "I'd rather be inside learning."

From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110909/...#ixzz1XQfr7F4b

[Meddle]

Does PLD serve Southern California?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-0...fornia/2878448

[Zacha341]

Yep, the second time. It [[the ancient system) is not going to get better only more aged and what about the day when it can not be brought back online?

Not watching FAUX news, that's for sure.

I caught part of the story on the Detroit News and Freep sites though. Isn't this the second time [[at least) in just a few weeks?

[Zacha341]

Precisely!

Too much is at stake for the usual suspects to engage in the usual excuses and the usual shenanigans. Our city [[and state, and nation's) infrastructure is dated. Instead of investing in public works, we've decided to be good little laissez-faire, late stage plutocrats. It's almost as if we chose to cannibalize the civilization built by the Greatest Generation, instead of tightening the belts in order to build one of our own to pass down to our children.

[DetroitPole]

And please, let's ignore the fact that DTE has had thousands without power, continuously, the entire summer. Right now DTE isn't faring any better than PLD.

I have no love loss for DTE, which I think is a monstrocity, but at least their blackouts usually follow storms. Further, in the past 5 years, I have lost power exactly once under DTE, for 26 hours after major storms.

PLD openly admitted their substation went down because...it was wet outside. Yes, it gets wet here at times.

Further, they offer the classic Detroit excuse: "This stuff happens everywhere." Just like with homicides and the crime rate in general, the big excuse for the past 30 years has been, "this is a major city, this happens everywhere." Well, look how far that mindset has gotten us in solving THAT problem.

I'm also sick of hearing how old this junk is. This is Detroit, it isn't Damascus. In the grand scheme of the world, we're an incredibly young city and our infrastructure was built to last, when we were booming. It isn't being maintained. I want to know how many resources are being devoted to people sulking at desks or shuffling around reading meters when the infrastructure has been left to rot for decades.

I also don't know why I should be so quick to believe that PLD is staffed by industrious do-gooders, when my experience with the city is either mind-numbing bureaucracy at best or grand theft at worst. I think it's probably just a few notches under the Department of Human Services.

What you won't hear about in the news [[unless this crap goes down again): We under PLD had a brownout this morning. Just enough to cut off the computers. Multiply that by all the buildings [[think WSU especially) served by PLD. Think of what that does to productivity.

[rjk]

In reference to the link above, the employee who caused the California blackout should have to sit in one of those carnival dunk tanks filled with poop. Give him a break every hour or so and someone can give him a knuckle sandwich.

Yikes, 5 million people without power because one person screwed up? It's scary when one person can cause that much damage. Where were all the safeguards?

[canuck]

Not watching FAUX news, that's for sure.

I caught part of the story on the Detroit News and Freep sites though. Isn't this the second time [[at least) in just a few weeks?

Meddle you deserve a medal.

[Danny]

The Detroit Public Lighting Dept. power grids runs like the 'Christmas Light' direct circuit system. If one wire blows the whole system blows. The DPL has not upgrade its power grid in 125 years. And its cost millions of dollars to have the entire grid replaced. So Detroit and its ghettohoods is STUCK with the primitive 'Christman Light' power grid for next 100 years.

WORD FROM THE STREET PROPHET

Nikolas Tesla tried to create the power grid using his giant coil, run electricity in the atmosphere and power our homes and businesses. The project worked but scientists didn't like his ideal because all life life of Earth would be electrically grounded until someone touch something with an electric current and shock!

I rather rely on good ole AC wired electrical power.

Neda, I miss you so.

[1953]

I worked at the DIA and we lost power [[supplied by PLD) all the time, endangering the $1 billion art collection that the city owns. We told PLD that we didn't have to complete our state mandated energy savings program, because every year we used less energy naturally, owning to PLD's inability to provide juice several days a year.

DTE may be unpopular, but I've lost service for all of 3 hours since 2008 with DTE. PLD needs to go and it needs to go now.

1953

[Detroitnerd]

Just a reminder: Whatever PLD is today, it was originally intended to provide competition against what we have in SE Michigan right now: A monopoly.

And despite all the actual reasons to want to see PLD go the way of the dodo, guess who is chomping at the bit hardest to see it go? The monopoly.

Just sayin'. At one time, PLD was the envy of the world...

[JBMcB]

And please, let's ignore the fact that DTE has had thousands without power, continuously, the entire summer. Right now DTE isn't faring any better than PLD.

Thousands? Out of how many customers? Two million? Spread out over how many counties and thousands of square miles?

How many customers does DPL have? Somewhere around 2,000, mostly confined within Detroit city limits? What percentage of them regularly loose power?

So, who is doing the better job?

[EastsideAl]

I've been in the DPL Custer St. station that failed, on a walk-through back when I was on Council staff in the '80s. The equipment seemed amazingly ancient - it reminded me of the Bride of Frankenstein - and it was actually pretty impressive that they could keep the system up and running, albeit with some street lighting outages back then.

That tour, which was conducted with federal and state officials, was part of an effort to update the DPL's equipment to even semi-modern standards. Even then though, there were a lot of concerned words, but no actual money was ever forthcoming to update the facilities, despite our pleas for the health of the city's vital infrastructure. Given the descriptions of what is happening now, I would guess that nothing has changed since then, and the city is still trying to limp through with decaying late 19th Century style equipment.

I agree completely with English above, it is a deep and abiding shame that we have decided that giving everything away to plutocrats - who already gouge us at every turn it seems - is somehow preferable to actually maintaining our public infrastructure, which is [[or was) owned by all of us. But that is the decision that we as a country and a state have made. We asked to be screwed and this is the inevitable result, so stop whining, buy some candles, and get used to it.

[stromberg2]

At one time, Detroit was the envy of the world....sigh.

Stromberg2

[iheartthed]

The problem isn't the lack of will to sell the PLD, it's the lack of interest in buying it.

[Detroitnerd]

Mistersky is still impressive. I've seen some of the original reports of it when it was built in the 1920s. Very up-to-date design for the times. Here are some facts from online:

In 1927, all electrical generation was transferred to the Mistersky Power Station on West Jefferson Avenue, which had a capacity of 60 megawatts.

Through period expansion, the electrical generating capacity of the Mistersky Power Station was increased to 184 megawatts by 1979.

A power interchange line of 80 megawatts capacity connects Mistersky to DTE.

[downtownguy]

This also happened late in the Archer Administration [[2000?). As I recall, the outage was city-wide, meaning that all buildings, street lights, traffic lights, etc., supplied by PLD were out. It lasted for several days and then happened again a few weeks later. But, as so often happens, rather than seriously addressing the issue, they just patched it up and kicked the can down the road.

[kraig]

Mistersky is still impressive. I've seen some of the original reports of it when it was built in the 1920s. Very up-to-date design for the times. Here are some facts from online:

In 1927, all electrical generation was transferred to the Mistersky Power Station on West Jefferson Avenue, which had a capacity of 60 megawatts.

Through period expansion, the electrical generating capacity of the Mistersky Power Station was increased to 184 megawatts by 1979.

A power interchange line of 80 megawatts capacity connects Mistersky to DTE.

Thank you.

Now when everyone is yelling "Privatize", they need to remember that the City already signed a $150 million dollar contract to receive all of its power from DTE. After which, the newly appointed COO, who came from DTE and had only been on the job for roughly a month, resigned from his position. Which shows the only reason he was on board was to serve the contractual needs of DTE and not the City.

The City would have been better served at spending the money to fix the infrastructure than giving the money to DTE. The only thing left it to give DTE the 1,800 Commercial Contracts leaving the City with both a broke and broken system to provide street lighting for the residents. But hey, who gives a damn about them?

Bing, who if anyone has forgotten has been a 20 year Board Member of DTE, and DTE are hooking up no bid contracts in a manner that would make Kwame and Bobby proud.

[kraig]

Thousands? Out of how many customers? Two million? Spread out over how many counties and thousands of square miles?

How many customers does DPL have? Somewhere around 2,000, mostly confined within Detroit city limits? What percentage of them regularly loose power?

So, who is doing the better job?

It's safe to say that between 713,000 residents and all of the commuters that come into the City that rely on the traffic lights and street lights to work that PLD is over the million mark. Which is far more than the paltry 2,000 number that you're trying to push. I can see why you didn't factor in the residents, like I said in an earlier post. Who gives a damn about the residents?

And may I add that it's been tens of thousands, bordering on if not exceeding a hundred thousand, of customers that DTE has had go without power for extended periods of time this summer. And of course, the ones who went the longest before DTE fixed their system has been Detroiters. But I'm sure that's just some kind of coincidence.