Yet another widespread power outage in the Metro

[mtburb]

After last night's storms, there are still around half a million people in the dark right now.

Down here, as of right now, half of Lincoln Park, Southgate, Allen Park, Taylor and Romulus, a third of Trenton, three-fourths of Grosse Ile and virtually all of Gibraltar and Flat Rock is still dark.

During the storm, a large area at the northeast corner of Eureka Road and Fort was in the dark as well.

In addition, the Dakota Inn also lost power, prompting the cancellation of the 26th Annual Chili Cookoff.

This is pretty unbelievable. And is the PLS system knocked out as well? If it is, this is pretty catastrophic.

[Jimaz]

Wow. Here's a link to that map with a color legend.

[Bigb23]

They said on the radio that this is the 10th worst outage on record. Maybe the infrastructure is ten times worse than average.
I moved a year and a half ago and have had less than 30 seconds without power.
Yet my old neighborhood ten miles away has racked up around 72 hours powerless in that time. When I moved, I gave a new neighbor, [[single mom with kids), an almost new 4500 watt generator, propane space heater, and lawn mower. I hope she did'nt trade them for drugs, otherwise she'll be tossing food out today after another day and a half without power.

[Willi]

DTE simply does a HORRIBLE job of preventive pro-active line maintenance.
They trim a bare minimum of something like 10 feet from the power cables,
only to have an entire limb or tree snap the damn cables anyways.

They need to clear a path - outright - to prevent the constant tree limb and animal issues.
People shouldn't be constantly forced to use gasoline generators in metro Detroit.
It's pretty damn noisy at night with 20 engines running all around a neighborhood.

Yeah, I live near a LOT of trees, and DTE really doesn't care about anything but StockHolders

https://redrundrain.wordpress.com/20...nes-and-trees/

[Jimaz]

DTE simply does a HORRIBLE job of preventive pro-active line maintenance.

I don't know enough about the subject to dispute that statement.

I did once encounter a hardhat in a remote wooded area. He explained that he was there to assess how much trimming was required around some high tension lines. He said they don't stop at just trimming the trees. They also plant some kind of short undergrowth species in the area to displace future tree growth. I just thought that was a pretty smart idea.

[Johnnny5]

DTE simply does a HORRIBLE job of preventive pro-active line maintenance.
They trim a bare minimum of something like 10 feet from the power cables,
only to have an entire limb or tree snap the damn cables anyways.

They need to clear a path - outright - to prevent the constant tree limb and animal issues.
People shouldn't be constantly forced to use gasoline generators in metro Detroit.
It's pretty damn noisy at night with 20 engines running all around a neighborhood.

Yeah, I live near a LOT of trees, and DTE really doesn't care about anything but StockHolders

https://redrundrain.wordpress.com/20...nes-and-trees/

Do you really think they should clear cut wide open paths around every power line on the off chance that they may cause damage? Honestly, if they only cared about their profits that's exactly what they would do, because it would be a heck of a lot cheaper than sending out trimming crews every few years.

It's a difficult balancing act between keeping trees from interfering with lines and turning miles of 100 year old trees into stumps and wood chips. Personally, I'd much rather keep my neighborhood full of mature trees and put up with the occasional power outage.

[preserve]

Here is 48216, another brown out - started with the bad storm over a week ago, 2 Edison trucks were here, twice, must have put a bandaid on the pole in the alley and left. Had full power for a couple of days, woke up this morning, lights dimmed, toaster doesn't toast, dryer doesn't dry.

[Scottathew]

DTE simply does a HORRIBLE job of preventive pro-active line maintenance.

I don't share that opinion. Stuff happens. Trees get uprooted. Large branches fall.

Many folks want to live in a community with lots of trees for shade and aesthetic purposes. Power lines are everywhere. I think DTE does a pretty good job balancing the needs of maintenance and letting us have our trees.

Bottom line is that we had a bad storm, and after a bad storm you're going to have outages. It's life. Hop on a bike, go for a walk, chat with a neighbor, play chess, etc...

[Danny]

This is a severe storm that can cause outages, frequent lightling, tornadoes, hail. A 'September Blast' before the cooler weather settles in for couple of week before the Autumnal Equinox.

The 'September Blast' usually happens on the first week of the month. It cause tons of damage to your property. The best you can do is ride it out and hope for the best. Be thankful that the Lord bring you rain. Other nations don't get rain or snow.

[Willi]

Profits first, keep shareholders happy, return $$ to investors --- residential pee ons come last.

Straight from DTE - Investor Relations :
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix....0mc3Vic2lkPTU3

[Danny]

Same thing happen to Enron when they duped its customers in California. They paid the price by embezzling and laundering shareholder's money and went out of business.

[NickCharles]

Is it too much, to admit that-- sometimes-- unfortunate things just happen, and that it isn't always about someone being at fault?

I'm a critical, grumpy guy, but damn. This forum is stunningly quick on the blame-trigger.

[Danny]

Power is still on at my house for the moment.

[Downriviera]

Power just came back on. Now I can watch the Tigers lose instead of hearing them lose on the radio.

[Gpwrangler]

Is it too much, to admit that-- sometimes-- unfortunate things just happen, and that it isn't always about someone being at fault?

I'm a critical, grumpy guy, but damn. This forum is stunningly quick on the blame-trigger.

Put in a standby generator. No issue.

[Scottathew]

Put in a standby generator. No issue.

Or hell, heaven forbid, go outside and do something!

We have power, thankfully, and we had a blast biking 10 miles, going to the art festival, taking a lazy nap after lunch, and then running around with the neighborhood kids while the dads put back some brewskis. We don't even need power to have a helluva time.

Tonight we will be using the power as the neighborhood gathers up for the MSU game.

[Gpwrangler]

[QUOTE=48307;450268]Or hell, heaven forbid, go outside and do something!

We have power, thankfully, and we had a blast biking 10 miles, going to the art festival, taking a lazy nap after lunch, and then running around with the neighborhood kids while the dads put back some brewskis. We don't even need power to have a helluva time.

Tonight we will be using the power as the neighborhood gathers up for the MSU game.[/QUOTE

nothing wrong with that. I do like to have porch lights and house lights when I get home though.

[248lurker]

DTE simply does a HORRIBLE job of preventive pro-active line maintenance.
They trim a bare minimum of something like 10 feet from the power cables,
only to have an entire limb or tree snap the damn cables anyways.

It's a catch 22 for them.

When they trim what they need, they get accused of butchering trees.
When they trim less to keep the residents, cities, etc. happy and power goes out, they get blamed for not doing enough.

[Willi]

If DTE knows wind causes tree problems WHY NOT be more pro-active ?
When squirrels munch and gnaw on equipment, why skimp on tree trimming ?
Why put personnel ""out-in-the-storm"" working 16 hour shift UN-necessarily ?
DTE finds it cost effective, just like cars with ignitions issues, fires, sudden acceleration, etc.

Standby unit - cost - noise issue - fuel issue - permit issues -- resale of house issue
How much """insurance"" do you need to buy for those ""emergencies""

SIZE 7 KW TO 12 KW
COST $3,000 TO $5,000

SIZE 12 KW TO 20 KW
COST $3,000 TO $8,000

SIZE 20 KW TO 48 KW
COST $5,000 TO $20,000

[Gpwrangler]

Standby unit - cost - noise issue - fuel issue - permit issues -- resale of house issue
How much """insurance"" do you need to buy for those ""emergencies""

SIZE 7 KW TO 12 KW
COST $3,000 TO $5,000

SIZE 12 KW TO 20 KW
COST $3,000 TO $8,000

SIZE 20 KW TO 48 KW
COST $5,000 TO $20,000

resale issue? Hardly. It increases resale. I wouldn't buy a house without one, especially around here. Noise? Fuel? Pollution? Not a concern in an emergency.

Especially in an outage, I want my place lit up and secure.

DTE does an exceptional job around here. Don't believe it? Live in the sticks and wait a week to get the power back.

[poobert]

Again, for all the goofballs who like to cheer about how we don't get hit with natural disasters, shit is pretty janky. The wind blows and we lose power. A summer shower sends poop water flying everywhere. The roads have essentially disintegrated to gravel and there are absolutely zero plans to allocate funds to repair them. We're all commiserating about our generators. I'm sorry, what kind of Third World bullshit is this?

Comeback state my hairy ass.

[Willi]

Recent article in BloombergBusiness Week -

Power outages are up 285 percent since 1984,
and the U.S. ranks last among the top nine Western industrialized nations
in the average length of outages, which the federal U.S. Energy Information Administration
says cost businesses as much as $150 billion a year.
Hundreds of thousands of miles of power lines can’t be monitored
from a central location, so repairers spend 60 percent of their time
searching for breaks.
“Many utilities are blind beyond the substation,”

DTE isn't special - they suck just like the rest of the electrical utilities.
The money goes to stockholders year after year, while the grid decays.

[detroitbob]

DTE isn't special - they suck just like the rest of the electrical utilities.
The money goes to stockholders year after year, while the grid decays.[/FONT]

And Engle gutted the State Public Service Commission...so unless the voters clean out Lansing there is not much hope for change.

[DetroitPlanner]

If you want to blame anyone you can collectively blame yourselves. We have a long tradition of NOT investing in needed infrastructure around here. Look at the roads, remember the water mains last winter? How about the great transit we have.

We have made this mess by not insisting on keeping things well maintained. Notice how the richer areas that do bury cables were not as badly affected?

Look on the bright side, at least the freeways did not fill up with sewage!

[Gpwrangler]

If you want to blame anyone you can collectively blame yourselves. We have a long tradition of NOT investing in needed infrastructure around here. Look at the roads, remember the water mains last winter? How about the great transit we have.

We have made this mess by not insisting on keeping things well maintained. Notice how the richer areas that do bury cables were not as badly affected?

Look on the bright side, at least the freeways did not fill up with sewage!

Buried electric service doesn't do much to prevent outages. The primary lines are still mostly above ground.