61 Power outages in San Diego! Wires melting and causing blackouts

[Nikki Stone 1]

At least this is SDG&E's explanation. I wonder about their infrastructure.

It's 118 degrees inland. Even in the city proper it's 99 degrees. La Mesa: 109 degrees. Wild Animal Park 114. San Diego is hitting records all over the place.

[Skip Intro]

1. Wires melting from the heat???

that's not it, is it?

[Nikki Stone 1]

2. That's what SDG&E is saying, according to the CBS affiliate in SD

I can't imagine that. I wondered if anyone had expertise in this.

[hobbit709]

4. Probably melting from the record current draw

since with the extreme temperatures everyone has their AC on max. Pull too many amps on circuits not designed for that load and you get hot wires, burning insulation, fires and exploding transformers.

[bperci108]

8. The wires don't melt from the heat in the air outside....

...but from carrying too heavy a load from all of the extra devices keeping us and our stuff cool in the higher temps.

Most systems are designed to shut themselves down before any real damage occurs, but mishaps do happen.

[Nikki Stone 1]

9. Thanks. The news program wasn't clear on this point

Today was a day that broke all kinds of records. Lots of folks inland went without electricity.

[hobbit709]

10. True, but

the power companies will up the breaker trip points as far as they can to try to cover the load-it doesn't always work. The 1965 New York blackout was caused by that

[Nikki Stone 1]

12. Mosty, the power companies are PR conscious about "rolling blackouts"

They are making it very clear that none of this is due to rolling blackouts.

[Catshrink]

3. Aren't most of the wires copper?

The melting point of copper is 1083.4±0.2ºC -- so I really doubt the wires are melting. It could be that the insulation around the wires is though.

[AGiordino]

14. Nope they're probably aluminum weight savings over greater

distances. Increase the wire count in the cable sizing. And yep, aluminum has lower failure temp than copper in peak current draw.

[Massacure]

16. But there is higher current going through, thus higher resistance.

Resistance ends up giving off heat. Electricity can get very very hot.

I burned myself touching a motor for science class once. And that was only a nine volt battery. Imagine what an entire power plant can do.

[rman]

58. Not higher resistance,

just higher wattage; same voltage * higher current.

However, if the temperature of the cables gets even close to melting point due to high current, that means they are over-loaded to the point were safety circuits should already have cut the power on those cables.
In short: cables of the power grid melting due to high temperature - whatever the cause of the hight temperature - is completely ridiculous. It's either a lie or they messed of the system real bad, bad as in: overriding standard safety measures.

[lonestarnot]

5. Damn NY and CA, now how much more of this bushit?

[Ilsa]

6. How are things in Tierrasanta? I have friends there. nt

[Nikki Stone 1]

11. Hot as hell, but I haven't heard about power outages in that area

Santee and La Mesa were pretty badly hit.

[tlsmith1963]

20. I'm in Santee

When I got home from work (I work in Alpine), the clock was blinking so I knew the power had been off. I heard it was off for only 10 minutes, though. I guess we got lucky.

Tammy

[Nikki Stone 1]

24. So it was a short outage. That's good

I heard that lots of people in Santee were without electricity for a lot of the day and still are.

[Ilsa]

22. Thanks. I think my friends are far enough south not to have been

affected for more than a few minutes. :hi: I read on the internet that it is 10 degrees above normal. That's pretty bad.

[maveric]

73. I'm in La Mesa now. Its 97 at 11:56 AM.

With no AC.
I was going to go to the beach but parking would be a problem.
Cold Showers are your friend!

[AlCzervik]

7. i was bitching about 112 here in Sac, after reading about woodland

at 119 i'll stop whining now. Something is going crazy.

[gulfcoastliberal]

48. Hey chimpsrsmarter, UC Davis grad here

Graduated in 1999. I remember a few days that hit around 112 in the summer during the 1990s.

What's going crazy is all the CO2 in the air from our rapacious lifestyles taht totally disregard the fouling our planet.

[HooptieWagon]

13. Could also be expanding

because of the heat and current load, and touching each other and/or tree limbs, etc.

[Rex]

15. Wires don't melt in 118 degrees, the rubber insulation might but

I seriously doubt it. I think it is the extra demand for energy.

[Joe Bacon]

17. 105 and Humid here in Los Angeles

I thought I left high humidity behind when I moved here!

[Nikki Stone 1]

19. I was in LA this morning. Came down to SD on the 5

Hot as hell, traffic at a standstill until Del Mar. I was happy to arrive in one piece.

[kestrel91316]

50. What part of town are you in that it's ONLY 105??????????

Lucky bastard (grumble).

[Joe Bacon]

55. Mid-Wilshire

My buddy in North Hollywood is frying eggs outside where it got to 115

[kestrel91316]

66. I have been in LA for 23 years and have never HEARD of temps like

this here.

I'm headed up to Santa Barbara today. I can't take any more of this.

[Joe Bacon]

68. But John Stossel says there's NO SUCH THING as global warming

And he has that eminent scientist Jerry Falwell backing him up!

[donsu]

65. higher water temps cause higher humidity too

what is the ocean water temps doing?

[lonestarnot]

18. 20,000 in N.western Queens have been without power for 6 days.

Con in Con Edison

[Nikki Stone 1]

21. I saw that on the news. Is this privatization or global warming?

Or just a bad heatwave?

[lonestarnot]

28. They are saying that Con Edison hasn't been able to explain why

the power is out. WTF is that? Can't explain why... isn't that their business? Electric! Shit. Just don't believe that for one second.

[Nikki Stone 1]

29. They don't have ANY explanation?

That's bizarre.

[lonestarnot]

36. More bizarre! People are accepting this!

[Marie26]

30. They also apparantly

lied about the extent of the outage & first said it only affected 5.000 residents. Wasn't there another big blackout last August?

[lonestarnot]

37. Now supposedly underground damage to network. Cause unknown.

[leesa]

76. It's also affecting some people in half their house or business

Highest recorded temps since the start of records in Escondido area.

[blonndee]

23. That's starting to scare me.

I'm sure if I lived there I'd be well past "started." Not making the news, though. I wonder how everyone is holding up.

[Marie26]

31. Big power outage in St. Louis, as well.

570,000 residences are currently w/o power. They've had to send in the National Guard and everything.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/15096543.htm

[blonndee]

34. Damn!

What's going on??

[lonestarnot]

39. I posted a seperate thread, getting no response.

[blonndee]

40. I'm looking, seems like St Louis is a result of

bad storms...still seems to be slow, though. NY? From what I can tell, maybe not back on till next week. http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/07/22/ny.blackouts.ap/index.html

[lonestarnot]

41. That's also what I read. Thanks for the link!

[lonestarnot]

38. WTF?

[Fovea]

46. Chalk it up to another miracle of the invisible hand

of the unregulated free market... or not.

[NNadir]

25. With the midwest, France, Germany, the west coast...

...could it be that something's happening?

[Nikki Stone 1]

26. What I'm even more nervous about is hurricane season

With as hot as it has been, the Gulf waters and the Atlantic are bound to be warmer than normal.

[NNadir]

27. You are wise to worry.

[tsuki]

43. Last month, Gulf waters were already higher than they have been

in August of previous years. The coral reefs will not survive, and that spells disaster for all Gulf life.

[Cybergata]

32. Too Much Demand

Welcome to our future. Global Warming's effects are happening NOW.

[sam sarrha]

33. maybe they are playing with that dang HARRP thing again... did you know

the money for HAARP comes form the people who own the Coal fired power plants in the four corners area... that is pretty strange.

i hope those dumb asses are not trying to drag down the energy from the Van Allen Belts.. we could be really screwed if that short that out.

there are now many HARRP arrays all along the same latitude, i heard there are HARRPs in england and across Scandinavia and Russia

[Nikki Stone 1]

35. What? (I don't understand your post at all)

?

[sam sarrha]

60. google: HARRP .. then GOOGLE: scalar weapons links

you have to google HARRP .. the Scalar weapons the articles dont link for here

http://www.earthpulse.com/haarp/vandalism.html

[SammyWinstonJack]

42. Meanwhile back at the pig farm..erm.. ranch... pResident " I couldn't

care less" is worried about those "snow flake babies" and "fetal farms". :wtf:

[redacted]

44. It was 107 here in Santa Rosa, 115 half hour north. Multiple outages

but thank god none of them lasted very long.

The grapes are likely cooking on the vines. ;-)

[kineneb]

49. similar in Lake Co.

Mt. Konocti's automated weather station (2100' elevation) reached 106 today. Hotter than that down near the lake. Sure hope it cools off a bit tonight; we had to leave the AC running last night. (Yes, we are spoiled, it usually cools off, into the 50s-60s at night. Sorry, valley folks.)

[schrodingers_cat]

75. 98 at my house, barely 1/2 mile up a hill from the San Francisco Bay

And guaranteed, none of us have AC because it rarely gets this bad. All I've got are three fans with buckets of cold water in front of them to cool the air. Melt...........

[BrotherBuzz]

78. I've been wondering about the grapes...

I understand grape vines just plain shut down when we have these high tempetures. The grapes are far from rippening and the sugar content is very low so I don't know what the final results will be, but hopefully cooler weather kicks in soon and the vines can start working again. If we have this weather in late August it could spell doom and gloom because the grapes need the cool evenings to rest after cooking during 'normal' hot days when the sugars are up to extend the 'hang time' to strike the magic acid/PH balance. The 2006 harvest might just turn out to be a bumper crop of mediocre wine.

[progressoid]

45. Better get used to it folks. The future is here.

[SammyWinstonJack]

47. The future sucks in more ways than one.

[puffthemagicdragon]

51. Its hotter than ever here in seattle too 95 degrees

I guess the whole country is hot. I had to turn off my computer this afternoon because it sounded like it was going to launch into outer space. 95 in Seattle puts everyone over the edge because no one up here believes in air conditioning.

[fooj]

52. It hit 90 here in La Selva Beach today. Warm for these parts...

[dougkeenan]

53. Why oh

why do electrons hate our freedoms?!

[SammyWinstonJack]

56. !

:spray:

[EFerrari]

62. Welcome to DU.

:hi:

[newyawker99]

63. Hi dougkeenan!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Scoot420fla]

54. No, There's no Global Warming

</sarcasm>
btw, this heatwave isn't just nationwide, it's WORLDWIDE - In Canada, In Europe and US

[dweller]

57. the ghost of Kennyboy Lay gives Aunt Millie another wet-kiss. . . n/t

and send his greetings to all from Hell, or whatever island he's absconded to.


dp

[babylonsister]

59. They're not melting in TX-yet. And it's flipping hot here.

We did have a storm go through this evening to cool things down.

[DanCa]

61. what what about the frozen embryos?

How are we going to keep them from melting?

[MurrayDelph]

64. Could also be because of the tourism influx

This was the weekend of Comic-Con. There are over 100,000 people there this weekend
(Many of them not on a first-name-basis with soap).

We were there until yesterday (In our "wisdom", we eschewed the $250/night hotels in
favor of a quaint older one that was only charging $75, but HAD NO AIR CONDITIONING!!)

So, we came back to the San Fernando Valley, where it is hotter, but less crowded.

[Nikki Stone 1]

71. Ah. Comic Con could explain the overuse of electricity that might lead to

wires melting.

What a mess!

[begin_within]

67. 108 Saturday in Kensington. I feel sorry for people who bought houses here

recently, based on the widespread myth that San Diego has the "best climate in the U.S." because it's a lie. May and June are typically overcast (although this June wasn't) and July and August are hot and muggy. Nowhere in the sales brochures promoting San Diego are these facts laid out. They just hint that it's always 72 degrees and sunny with a light ocean breeze. Never mind the May gray, June gloom and July fry. Certainly the winter is far milder in San Diego than in most of the U.S., but the spring, summer and fall are not dramatically different from the rest of the U.S.

[pitohui]

70. and don't forget fire season

i ran for my life after some scouting visits to that area

[cascadiance]

69. Trader Joes had half of its refrigerated shelves emptied yesterday...

... in Carmel Mountain store, due to the heat. Couldn't get most fresh salads and other foodstuffs then.

I'm scared to look at my electric bill next month. I wonder if we'll start getting blackouts soon.

My mom had problems with two of her roam phones and her cell phone going out yesterday too. Haven't had a chance to look at them to see if they're related or not.

[Nikki Stone 1]

72. Wow. A real financial loss there. Privatized energy SUCKS!

Maybe we should sue.

[tinrobot]

74. I was on a long bike ride in San Diego yesterday

And yes it was hot... way too hot in most places. What was interesting was that when we were away from civilization on the coast or in the middle of nowhere, it was tolerable, but as soon as we came upon mankind, it got terribly hot.

You could feel the heat coming off the asphalt roads and concrete -- they totally act as giant heat sinks. The absolute worst heat was where we rode past a traffic jam. Those cars raised the air temperature by at least 20 degrees. You can't tell me that a few million cars aren't addidng significantly to the problem.

We're causing this.

[Nikki Stone 1]

77. That's really interesting. They were telling people to stay inside

not to hike or bike. But that seems to have worked for you because nature alone can cool itself off, I guess. Were you biking right by the ocean?