Central coasters. PG & E sucks.

[Cleita]

We are just a starting a storm and power is stopping already. We need the county to run the utilities like they do down south and in other places, or we need a cooperative. More about this later. Gotta go charge up my devices until it goes out again.

[NYC_SKP]

1. Well, you do realize that only PGE areas are being hit right now, don't you?

Your anger is misplaced: SMUD, LAPW, SDGE, SSJID, TID, MID, and SCE all have about the same track records.

Storms suck. Stay safe, and for next time get a car-lighter powered inverter. I once got through a two day blackout with one.

Here's an outage map for ya:

https://m.pge.com/mobile#map

Take care.

[Cleita]

2. I don't think the car lighter inverter will flush the toilet and get me water.

But thanks anyway. I just got my electric back after twelve hours. PG & E crews are out with the duct tape and bailing water, but they won't invest in updating the grill. That's why we need our utilities to be non-profit.

[NYC_SKP]

3. It's complicated. But I'm glad your power is back up.

People don't understand how the electric grid works, or how utility companies operate, or what CARB or CAISO or WAPA are.

Suffice it to say that a little information is a dangerous thing, and it's oh so easy to bash a company because it's an investor owned utility.

You probably didn't even know that since Enron, IOUs are prohibited from profiting from sales of power.

Like I said, it's complicated but if you are interested in learning and speaking from knowledge rather than just speaking, Google search for "decoupling" and "Enron".

Also, the grid isn't owned by PG&E, it's not their job to fix it, all the power assets public and private are mandated to share the effort.

Jesus, I wish people knew something about something before they complain.

[Cleita]

5. If they don't, then more reason to send them packing and to get something along

the lines of DWP like Los Angeles. I have been serviced by both and when there are power problems due to storms or fires, the way they are serviced are the difference of night and day especially since Los Angelea is a very highly populated area compared to the Central Coast. Also, they are the main obstruction to decommissioning the El Diablo nuclear plant. Their latest seismic study is a joke and frankly a big dangerous lie.

I don't know why you would defend a for profit power company unless you are a major stockholder or have job with them. If it's about a job there will still be workers needed no matter who is in charge.

[NYC_SKP]

7. Diablo Canyon

Great plant, safe and no CO2.

[Cleita]

8. Diablo is not safe. If you believe that, you are part of the problem of

getting it decommissioned. No nuclear plant is safe, EVER.

[NYC_SKP]

9. Diablo is a beautiful and clean and safe plant.

I've been inside twice, full tour, even the control rooms and turbine deck and storage ponds for nuclear waste which, by the way, will still be there after decommissioning.

[Cleita]

10. I really hope I never have to say I told you so, but if we don't make changes

I will be saying it, if we are both still alive.

[NYC_SKP]

15. I've been to natural gas and hydrothermal plants.

Like night and day, the levels of security and maintenance and cleanliness.

We did a good job putting the industry through the regulatory ringer, not at all like Japan or other countries.

I wouldn't support building more Diablos, but turning it off would mean burning more natural gas.

Solar and wind will one day be a solution but if we covered every roof with solar tomorrow it wouldn't help until we learn to store energy and have a grid designed to take that specific type of generation, the infrastructure was built for large centralized generation, it will take time to rebuild for distributed production and two way transmission.

Trust me on these details.

Take care.

[Cleita]

16. The loveliness of a place doesn't detract from it's deadliness.

And please don't buy the propaganda of having to have more gas plants. It's just not true.

[NYC_SKP]

17. Buy propaganda?

Please, your experience with telephonic distribution systems doesn't translate over to the energy transmission and distribution side.

Any amount of generation that's taken off line means that new generation has to come in to replace it. That's just a fact.

Natural Gas plants are the most likely to take up the slack, and that's also just a fact and demonstrated by historic trends if you look at them.

[Cleita]

18. Well I can't argue with a closed mind.

Thanks for the opinions though. Also, there are no facts when it comes to the future. One really can't predict what will happen even when there is past history involved that it's the most likely result. If we are in a predicting mood, I predict we are trending toward not using oil and gas in the future because 1) the supply is being used up and 2) many people are waking up to the fact it's use is ruining the planet.

[pinto]

11. Cleita, I appreciate your stand about Diablo. Yet, please don't conflate storm-related outages

with that issue. Your power is back on apparently. PG&E staffers probably worked through the night to re-connect everyone as best they could. Cut them some slack.

[Cleita]

12. I'm not conflating, but you cannot deny PG & E runs El Diablo and are in

charge of how we get electricity here. I used to live off the grid at one time in another state so I'm quite familiar with what could be done here, if only PG & E weren't in the way. But I appreciate your candor. Maybe one of these days you will see what I see.

[pinto]

13. We don't get electric power here from the nuke plant, iirc. Its output runs down south and west. No?

I may be a bit sketchy on that.

I lived in the So. County for 10 years. Numerous outages during storms mainly due to downed lines, a basic link, or blown transformers. LOL, we had a transformer that routinely shorted across the street. I'd call PG&E and they'd say "that one again? ugh." Finally got upgraded.

How would you envision living off the grid here? What's that picture for you? I'm interested in the possibilities.

Again, though, I think your focus on the Diablo plant may color your overall perspective.

[Cleita]

14. So even more reason for us not to carry the risk, no?

I'm not envisioning living off the grid here although I could. It would only take few solar panels, some deep cell batteries and a backup generator if I owned the property, but alas I rent and my landlady is really stubborn about going solar. Although I noticed them using a generator yesterday when the weather knocked out the power. I already get water from a well and water my garden with shower and laundry water and I have a septic tank too. So I'm pretty much off the grid except for the electric.

However, I really would like to see the county float a bond to give every roof in the county solar panels and other promising surfaces and reverse meters free of charge. I think dependence on the nuke plant and other types of generating plants would then be miniscule to fill out any extra need. We need to turn the utility into a non-profit whether run by the County or as a owner cooperative, I don't care. I did have experience with a telephone cooperative in all places, Texas, which was owned by the customers. It was non-profit and it was the best phone service I ever had and the cheapest so I know a well run cooperative for utilities works extremely well. Then we could work on improving the science instead of improving profits for the energy giants.

I know that the Kool-Aid has been served with very generous helpings here on the Central Coast by the nuke plant which is why I'm not surprised you and others think like you do, but I'm not drinking it and there are numbers of others who have looked into the claims of the safety of the plant who have not accepted the claims and found a number of inaccuracies and omissions in the studies. Also, the seismic scientists at Cal-Tech have requested their files on those studies from El Diablo and one made an off hand remark to a reporter questioning him that "good luck on that" or some such phrase. I am paraphrasing.

[KamaAina]

4. They suck up here, too.

A tree fell over into our parking lot sometime yesterday, taking the line to the building with it. It was still out when I went to bed at about 10:15. And Comcast is still out!

As for public power, PG&E and SoCal Edison have pretty much blocked it through their wholly-owned subsidiary, the Legislature. Only those few places that already have it, like Santa Clara, are grandfathered; this explains why Intel is located in Santa Clara rather than, say, Sunnyvale. The places that have it down South are really just distribution networks; they buy their power from the TVA.

What about solar? We are unlikely to ban it the way Arizona, of all places, has, at ALEC's behest.

[Cleita]

6. If we had honest legislators they would see the point of putting

solar panels on every roof in the southwest with reverse meters. But they won't because you can't charge for the kilowatts gathered from the sun. What's the problem with Arizona anyway?

[CountAllVotes]

19. They suck up north and badly

Just before Xmas they claimed they were going to give me a new refrigerator and the next day the insisted upon coming to my home to fill out the paperwork so I could get one.

Well, that was a total lie.

I got no new refrigerator.

What they did is red tag my furnace and my stove/oven so they could not be used. They tried to get me to buy a new furnace for abt. $3,000.00. I had a repairman come over and he cleaned the furnace and it works perfectly and they had to take their red tag off it.

My advice is to NEVER let these people into your house to weatherize your home, claim to give you a new refrigerator, etc.

What they give out to the poor is JUNK, pure JUNK.

Shame on me! I should have known as many years ago they gave me a microwave oven and it broke within 3 days and I had to pay to have the piece of useless junk recycled!

Oh how I hate PG&E!!!

[Cleita]

20. We need our utilities to be publicly operated by the counties or the State

or we need them to be customer owned cooperatives. Putting something as vitally necessary as our electricity in the hands of for profit corporations gets you bad and often dangerous service. I'm hoping to try to convince my fellow consumers to push our politicians into doing something like that. Right now it seems to be a Sysiphian endeavor as most people think I'm a crank as you can see from the posts above mine.

[Piedras]

21. SLOCleanEnergy

slocleanenergy.org is organizing to provide an alternative to PG&E power in the San Luis Obispo County area.

About SLO Clean Energy

SLO Clean Energy is a volunteer-led effort that is committed to the local clean energy transformation of communities within San Luis Obispo County. We envision a future of local energy abundance and see an effective path to local resiliency: local control, local jobs, long-term electrical rate stability, local investment of electricity revenues, and clean renewable energy.

History

In August 2012, a group of committed San Luis Obispo County community leaders came together out of a need to form a coalition around local economic security and energy resilience. Since that time, the leadership team has worked consistently towards the goal of raising awareness about Community Choice Aggregation. Members of the team have travelled to Sonoma and Marin Counties to meet with their CCA leaders. SLO Clean Energy is currently raising awareness about the possibility to participate in a cost-sharing Feasibility Study with Santa Cruz, Monterey, and San Benito Counties.

What is Community Choice Aggregation?

Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) was signed into State law in 2002 shortly after the California electricity crisis (AB117). CCA is a de facto public utility that allows cities and counties to aggregate the buying power of individual customers within a defined jurisdiction in order to secure alternative energy supply contracts.

Their FAQ page slocleanenergy.org/faq is well worth reading to learn more about their goals and accomplishments.

Marin County, CA is one of the California Counties with a clean energy alternative. marincleanenergy.org

Marin Clean Energy

MCE is a public agency offering choices for 50-100% renewable electricity in Marin County, unincorporated Napa County and the City of Richmond, California.

[Cleita]

23. Thanks Piedras. One more cause to add to my agenda.

Last edited Fri Jan 16, 2015, 01:55 PM - Edit history (1)

I had telephone service through a consumer owned cooperative in Texas of all places and it was the most efficient and least expensive services I ever had. Also if they had excess money left every quarter over after paying the bills, they returned it to the consumer members.

[CountAllVotes]

22. I agree w/you

And no, I do not think you are crazy!

If more people went through what I just went through, they'd feel the same way!

Not only did they try to hit me up for $3,000.00 they also had some sleazeball place call me after they shut me down telling me I had a "cracked block" on my furnace and I needed a new one. Sadly for them, I managed to get someone over here to look at the furnace before their crime partner did and they basically cleaned it and now it works just fine again.

I filed a complaint with the BBB. That was fairly useless.

I'd still like to sue these SOB's for what they did. They had tried to shut down my water heater as well and they forgot to reset the temperature on it. It was set to very hot which = boiling!

I have a lack of sensation from the waist down mostly due to an illness and I could have been seriously burned! Did they give a damn? Hell no.

I'd like to see the likes of PG&E go bust personally!