Elictricity.....NOT!!!

This didn't seem to make much national news, but at 3:38 PM on Thursday, a moron at a switching station in Arizona pushed the wrong button, and ALL OF CALIFORNIA south of Los Angeles, east through most of Arizona and New Mexico, and most of Baja California del Norte.......LIGHTS OUT. Several MILLION homes and business without power. As switching occurred to try to backfill the bad 500KV leg, the overload caused the San Onofre nuclear plant to shut itself down.

It is &^#$&^ DARK out here! Folks who where low on gas are screwed, because they can't fill up. Commute traffic horrendous because all signals on surface streets out!

Can't but ice because all the convenience stores are just shut down.


Estimates originally were that power would be out well into Friday and possibly into the weekend for some customers. Apparently they were just trying to not build up expectations. Actually, power started coming back after midnight, and by 6:00 am Friday, virtually all power is restored. They are asking us to go easy on air cond. because they think the system may be a little 'fragle' just yet.

So, we were down 12 hours, decided to toss a lot of food, and realized we don't much care for the cave man style of living!

Sorry. I know what its like to be without power. In 1996, I was in Los Angeles, and there was a huge blackout while we were attending an affair at a catering hall. It got pretty hot pretty quickly, and the power was off for many hours. That as I remember was also caused by some smart person.

Where is Ian when you need him?

Can't wait to hear the results of the investigation into this. There is absolutely no way this should have happened. If that AZ feed goes down, San Onofre should be able to supply SD without too much issue, until that AZ feed can be restored. Lots of bad press for San Onofre lately.

This is exactly what Enron was doing in cooperation with large power suppliers. Enron officials were colluding with them to turn power off, and every time this happened they made big money. Watch the 2005 documentary- Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

Yes, there are some questions to be answered! How can one guy working alone have access and the ability to do some little thing which cause the whole southwest link to go down?? What happened to 'reader-worker' procedures???? I hope the ahabs are not taking note of this situation!!!!

I don't know anything about "the grid". It was announced that as San Onofre tried to pick up the whole load to back fill for the lost link, there was such a droop that it sensed overload and shut down on auto.

I suppose some obamasan will appoint a commitee of overpaid experts to look into this!

That is what you get when you hire a Button Pusher instead of a skilled worker, Someone that at least understands what that Button does.

TGIF

Enjoy Your Holiday Weekend...

DonL said:

That is what you get when you hire a Button Pusher instead of a skilled worker, Someone that at least understands what that Button does.

TGIF

Enjoy Your Holiday Weekend...

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Oh yeah, I almost forgot about the big blackout in the Northeast in 1965. I was going home from Manhattan, in a subway train under the streets of Brooklyn, NY. Now THAT was fun, OH, YEAH! Then, when I finally did get home that night, I had to walk up 5 floors to my apartment. The power did not come back on until almost midnight. It was early November, so it was not hot, and not too cold yet.

Cool,

They had big problems with all those Electric Mass Transit cars that Ian likes so much.

His Ass would be setting on the Electric Short bus with no Beer.

DonL said:

Cool,

They had big problems with all those Electric Mass Transit cars that Ian likes so much.

His Ass would be setting on the Electric Short bus with no Beer.

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Hi Don, he would not know what that means, but the electric short bus would GO slow too. No beer? warm beer, but they like it that way across the pond. First bar I went to in Switzerland served me warm beer and I complained; everybody laughed at me

IT is not his fault that they put a sign over it labled, "BUTTON", and someone else told him to push the button.

hj said:

IT is not his fault that they put a sign over it labled, "BUTTON", and someone else told him to push the button.

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LOL.

"BUTTON" is also what the Nuke Button says above it.

I hope he don't push that one.

I think the Nuke button takes two people.

I just hope the Nuke Button Pusher is not Bi-Polar.

That would make all the Beer vary warm.

Get a cold one while you can...

quote; I think the Nuke button takes two people

Not really, but you have to press it many times, like you would do waiting for an elevator. It was done that way to determine if you REALLY wanted to push it or just did it accidently.

If we really had a threat of domestic terrorism, me and my kid could take out the whole southwest in a days work with some plastic explosives, and buttons won't get it back on.

Miles of towers in the desert with only the lizards guarding them.

Jumbo,How can you call this employee a moron? Do you have all the facts of what went down or just going by marginal A.P. burbs?