Power Outage Hits Southern California

[GradyPhilpott]

This just in:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/09/us/09power.html

[Grissom]

Massive power outage. 1.4 million affected. Still w/o power.

[TheVTCGuy]

I'm typing this on my I-phone. Here is a pic of the inside of my house tonight.

[snowbird]

It seems like it was just San Diego Gas & Electric customers (though several million of them) - apparentlly So Cal Edison stayed online the whole time.

[Route 66]

Originally Posted by TheVTCGuy

I'm typing this on my I-phone. Here is a pic of the inside of my house tonight.

Well Paul, that sheds some light as to whether any of our members here were affected.

I hope your power is back on soon.

[axxeman01]

Any luck yet Paul?

[TheVTCGuy]

Originally Posted by axxeman01

Any luck yet Paul?

I came back on line early this morning, but I understand there's a lot of San Diegans still without power.

[Grissom]

North County started coming back online around 2130 hours last night, and we came back online, at around 0030 this am.....

San Diego Gas & Electric Restores Power; Calls For Energy Conservation. (Press Release)

http://www.sdge.com/outages/sdoutage_newsrelease.shtml

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 9, 2011 -- San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) today restored power at 3:25 a.m. to its 1.4 million customers affected by the Sept. 8 outage. The restoration was accomplished almost exactly 12 hours after a major electric transmission system outage in western Arizona and the loss of a key connection with the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station and other factors resulted in the most widespread power outage in the company’s history.

On Thursday afternoon and throughout the night SDG&E coordinated its restoration efforts with the organization in charge of California’s power grid, the California Independent Operator (Cal-ISO). Early this morning, in cooperation with the Cal-ISO, SDG&E completed the power restoration process. Because the restoration process went smoothly, SDG&E was able to restore power sooner than anticipated.

SDG&E thanks its customers for their patience and local public agencies, including local municipalities, for their support and cooperation.

"Restoring power in the aftermath of the loss of the entire local grid serving San Diego and southern Orange counties was a monumental task and the Cal-ISO, the region’s power plant managers and our employees really rose to the challenge," said David Geier, vice president of electric operations. "The restoration process, however, has left our local power grid very fragile and we are asking our customers to conserve electricity throughout the day Friday."

SDG&E and the Cal-ISO are focusing their efforts over the next few days on maintaining and ensuring the integrity of the local power system. Upon meeting that goal, the company will turn its attention toward determining the sequence of events that led to the outage and establishing practices and procedures to ensure that outages such as the Sept. 8 event are not repeated.

There may be isolated outages that persist. If customers are experiencing an interruption in electric service, they should all SDG&E at 1-800-411-SDGE (7343). The Cal-ISO and SDG&E have called for energy conservation throughout the day Friday. SDG&E is asking customers to: set air conditioners to 78 degrees or higher; use fans rather than air conditioning; keep windows, door and fireplace dampers closed when using an air conditioner; turn off the air conditioner when leaving the house; draw blinds and drapes to keep the sun out during the warmer parts of the day and open windows at night and during the cool of the day.

The power outage began with a major transmission outage in western Arizona that caused a loss of power to southern California. Shortly afterward, the San Onofre Generating Station went off line. As a result, SDG&E did not have adequate resources on its system to keep power on across its service territory.

SDG&E is a regulated public utility that provides energy service to 3.5 million consumers through 1.4 million electric meters and more than 850,000 natural gas meters in San Diego and southern Orange counties. The utility’s area spans 4,100 square miles. SDG&E is a subsidiary of Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE), a Fortune 500 energy services holding company based in San Diego.

[Grissom]

Oopssss....

One Electrical Worker Blamed for Leaving Millions Without Power in California, Arizona and Mexico

By LAUREN EFFRON (@LEffron831) , DAVID WRIGHT (@abcdavid) , JULIE NA and JASON VOLACK
Sept. 8, 2011

A single worker's error led to a massive power outage that swept across Arizona, Southern California and Mexico, left millions of people in the dark and brought major West Coast cities to a standstill, according to a local power company.

The North Gila-Hassayampa 500 kV transmission line near Yuma, Ariz. was tripped offline when a single APS employee was carrying out a procedure in the North Gila substation, according to Arizona Power Service.

Typically, in such an instance, the outage would be isolated to the Yuma area. The investigation is now focusing on the reason that did not occur in this case, APS said Thursday.

San Diego Gas & Electric Co. president and CEO Michael Niggli earlier said that 1.4 million affected customers could be without power through the night and into Friday.

A multi-stage restoration plan was begun to get power back to everyone, according to the San Diego Gas & Electric Co. Power reportedly was back in some areas, including Orange County, Calif.

Two million more people were reported to be without power in Mexico.

There was "no indication that this event was caused by terrorism," Niggli said earlier today, adding that the agency was working with the California Independent System Operator to bring them back online.

The outage, which started at 4 p.m. PST, appeared to stretch west from Yuma to San Diego, as far north as San Clemente, Calif., and as far south as the Baja peninsula in Mexico.

Earlier, authorities said that the outage most likely had to do with the power line that connects Arizona and California. Both major connections that bring power to the region have been disconnected.

Viewers of ABC affiliate KESQ in Palm Springs, Calif., called in to say they heard a massive explosion at a substation in Coachella. Those reports could not be immediately confirmed.

The loss of power led to a shutdown of two reactors at the San Onofre nuclear power plant. Officials from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Agency said it appeared to have shut down automatically at 3:38 p.m. because of the change in the power grid -- as it is designed to do, kind of like a circuit breaker. Officials are working now to reconnect the reactor so that it can help restore power to some of the many people affected.

Grocery stores across San Diego that have back-up generators are filled with people grabbing non-perishable food, water and ice. Lines are reportedly backed up everywhere.

Most of the gas stations are closed, as people are being advised to use as little gas and water as possible. There are people stranded whose gas has run out, and all landline phones aren't working.

Some hospitals that usually provide urgent care are closed, while some were under emergency lock down -- frustrating and frightening many.

Non-functioning traffic lights have caused delays everywhere, making it difficult for ambulances to get to where they needed to go.

All flights out of San Diego International Airport have been suspended, and the airport is currently running on generators.

San Diego Gas & Electric Co. also sent out a barrage of alerts on its Twitter feed, warning customers without power to "drive safety" on roads where street lights are out and "if you have a personal family emergency plan, please activate it now."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[TheVTCGuy]

Whomever that worker is,,, He is automatically accepted in to the Dorklehead club.

[Numismatist]

Originally Posted by TheVTCGuy

Whomever that worker is,,, He is automatically accepted in to the Dorklehead club.

I think it was caused by a lightning strike that hit some bizarre metal rod on top of a mountain somewhere that someone left behind...

[GradyPhilpott]

Originally Posted by Numismatist

I think it was caused by a lightning strike that hit some bizarre metal rod on top of a mountain somewhere that someone left behind...

[Route 66]

Originally Posted by Numismatist

I think it was caused by a lightning strike that hit some bizarre metal rod on top of a mountain somewhere that someone left behind...

Good one!

[KKB]

We came back online (Rancho del Rey/Chula Vista) about 12:30AM We had a great time cooking by oil lamp, candle and flashlight light. Then we ate outside on the large picnic table by candlelight and the bright moonlight. My 11-year-old niece said "It's just like the olden days!" and was totally blown away that rice can be cooked in a pot on the stove, not just in an electric rice cooker

[Grissom]

Originally Posted by TheVTCGuy

Whomever that worker is,,, He is automatically accepted in to the Dorklehead club.

.....and immediately made President?

[TheVTCGuy]

Originally Posted by Numismatist

I think it was caused by a lightning strike that hit some bizarre metal rod on top of a mountain somewhere that someone left behind...

Uh.... oh.....

[pacifichrono]

Power was out for 11 hours at our house. The lights turning on woke me up at 2:20 this morning.

Last night was like Little House on the Prairie:

...no lights
...no TV
...no video games
...no internet
...no hot dinner

Had nothing to do but sit and 'talk.' What a boring night!

[TheVTCGuy]

Let me make a prediction....


Nine months from now there will be a spike in births in San Diego County...

[Numismatist]

Originally Posted by TheVTCGuy

Let me make a prediction....


Nine months from now there will be a spike in births in San Diego County...

A bunch of kids named Paul?

[TheVTCGuy]

Originally Posted by Numismatist

A bunch of kids named Paul?

Hey! How about that? A bunch of little VTC guys running around...

[BarkMaster]

Many mini-Dorkleheads?