Con Edison strikes again!
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Photon is right except for two things, it's been patched for more than 50 years and they also use barbed wire along with the duct tape. :p It's been patched over and over and over since at least the 50s and I want to say it's been patched and repatched since the New Deal put in the infrastructure for quite a bit of the power grid. When you have a power grid that was designed for a country that has 140+ million people to have power gradually increase to a power grid that has to supply power for 300+ million people who all use WAY more power than they did back in the 50s, you have a recipe for disaster. Just imagine if Windows XP still used the same kernel that was in Windows 98. That's pretty much the US power grid. The only way I can think of to make it better would be to split it from the 3 main grids we have now (Eastern side of the country, Texas, Western side of the country) to maybe a dozen different grids and then start channeling resources into upgrading each one individually. It might mean that we would have to suck some funds away from the congressional hearings about video games but I'm willing to make that sacrifice.
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Photon is right except for two things, it's been patched for more than 50 years and they also use barbed wire along with the duct tape. :p It's been patched over and over and over since at least the 50s and I want to say it's been patched and repatched since the New Deal put in the infrastructure for quite a bit of the power grid. When you have a power grid that was designed for a country that has 140+ million people to have power gradually increase to a power grid that has to supply power for 300+ million people who all use WAY more power than they did back in the 50s, you have a recipe for disaster. Just imagine if Windows XP still used the same kernel that was in Windows 98. That's pretty much the US power grid. The only way I can think of to make it better would be to split it from the 3 main grids we have now (Eastern side of the country, Texas, Western side of the country) to maybe a dozen different grids and then start channeling resources into upgrading each one individually. It might mean that we would have to suck some funds away from the congressional hearings about video games but I'm willing to make that sacrifice.
Sho_Asylumn wrote:
it's been patched for more than 50 years
:laugh: And here I was trying to be nice to the power companies! They're always so nice to us...:sigh:
Sho_Asylumn wrote:
barbed wire
Don't forget the chewing gum... that's been an important component, too.
Sho_Asylumn wrote:
When you have a power grid that was designed for a country that has 140+ million people to have power gradually increase to a power grid that has to supply power for 300+ million people who all use WAY more power than they did back in the 50s, you have a recipe for disaster.
Toronto isn't in the US, as has been pointed out, but you are absolutely right there, and more than just the US has this flaw in their power systems. I think that the more people can produce their own power the better... it really doesn't take much. My family and I are experimenting with wind and hydroelectric on a small scale, and you would be surprised what it can do. The thing is, back in the 50's, as you said, people used less power, so why should they have invested in equipment to make their own? However, these days, with prices, pollution, and a failing system, it makes a lot more sense.
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This has always weirded me out about Toronto. As soon as it gets above 30C here suddenly all you hear are pleas to conserve power, hourly tallies of Megawatts consumed and ongoing threats of brown- and black-outs. I honestly don't understand how it could get to this kind of situation. Were there unplanned losses of power-plants? An unexpected population growth? Too many Xboxes suddenly being played? Anyone have some background on this?
cheers, Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
Extra air conditioning use? There was a black-out recently in London because the local electricity company (claims they) ran out of juice because of too much air conditioning usage - basically because they haven't noticed the trend of all new office buildings having air-con and so haven't raligned their cpacity to match.
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This has always weirded me out about Toronto. As soon as it gets above 30C here suddenly all you hear are pleas to conserve power, hourly tallies of Megawatts consumed and ongoing threats of brown- and black-outs. I honestly don't understand how it could get to this kind of situation. Were there unplanned losses of power-plants? An unexpected population growth? Too many Xboxes suddenly being played? Anyone have some background on this?
cheers, Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
Chris Maunder wrote:
I honestly don't understand how it could get to this kind of situation.
Come visit South Africa...
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xacc.ide-0.2.0.50 - now with partial MSBuild support!
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Garrr.... As I write this we are expecting power to go out any minute ! :mad::mad::mad: All our neighbors on the opposite side of the street on our block have no power. It's 93F now and supposed to go up to 100F tomorrow. And my wife just bought a bunch of food. Sigh...
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF!
We don't have these problems in Texas. In the "dead of winter", it's 85 here...
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
Garrr.... As I write this we are expecting power to go out any minute ! :mad::mad::mad: All our neighbors on the opposite side of the street on our block have no power. It's 93F now and supposed to go up to 100F tomorrow. And my wife just bought a bunch of food. Sigh...
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF!
Nimby and banana have kept spare generating capacity from growing as fast as consumer demand. The margine between normal use and peak capacity is steadily shrinking, consequently heatwave rolling blackouts are going to become more common as time passes. In the mean time, buy ice by the bag to keep your fridge/freezer cold.
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This has always weirded me out about Toronto. As soon as it gets above 30C here suddenly all you hear are pleas to conserve power, hourly tallies of Megawatts consumed and ongoing threats of brown- and black-outs. I honestly don't understand how it could get to this kind of situation. Were there unplanned losses of power-plants? An unexpected population growth? Too many Xboxes suddenly being played? Anyone have some background on this?
cheers, Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
Transformers and cabling are sized according to projected demand; buying larger than needed is very expensive. If the projected demand is significantly smaller than the eventual load, the weakest link will fail. I tend to be conservative in my purchasing - tradition dictates about 6.5 kW per residence, but I size transformers using 7.5 to 10 kW per residence as a baseline. This allows for some growth, and we all know that people aren't likely to use less energy in the future. I suspect that much of the problem in older neighborhoods comes from changing demographics, with multi-family units replacing single-family dwellings, and commercial establishments encroaching on formerly residential areas. What might have been a quiet little residential neighborhood 25 years ago probably now has an office building or two, or a strip mall, all being served by the original circuits. On top of that, the range of electrical devices in a normal home has increased a lot in the past 20 years. There is also some guesswork involved. We use what's known as a diversity factor in estimating loads, the assumption that not every customer on a circuit will use maximum energy at the same time. The result is an educated guess at how large the transformers and conductors should be, and that guess can often be very wrong. At design time, it's all a crap shoot...
"...a photo album is like Life, but flat and stuck to pages." - Shog9
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This has always weirded me out about Toronto. As soon as it gets above 30C here suddenly all you hear are pleas to conserve power, hourly tallies of Megawatts consumed and ongoing threats of brown- and black-outs. I honestly don't understand how it could get to this kind of situation. Were there unplanned losses of power-plants? An unexpected population growth? Too many Xboxes suddenly being played? Anyone have some background on this?
cheers, Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
Chris Maunder wrote:
I honestly don't understand how it could get to this kind of situation.
Then you're thinking like a programmer instead of a corporation. It would cost them boat loads of money to redo their infrastructure so that it could provide decent and reliable service to their customers. However, that's not going to translate to new revenue, and they're not going to lose customers if they don't do this - they're already the only game in town if you want electricity. Consequently, spending all that money wouldn't increase their profits one little bit, so why on earth should they bother? Welcome to the Dark Side of the free enterprise system...
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalStrategyConsulting.com
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Transformers and cabling are sized according to projected demand; buying larger than needed is very expensive. If the projected demand is significantly smaller than the eventual load, the weakest link will fail. I tend to be conservative in my purchasing - tradition dictates about 6.5 kW per residence, but I size transformers using 7.5 to 10 kW per residence as a baseline. This allows for some growth, and we all know that people aren't likely to use less energy in the future. I suspect that much of the problem in older neighborhoods comes from changing demographics, with multi-family units replacing single-family dwellings, and commercial establishments encroaching on formerly residential areas. What might have been a quiet little residential neighborhood 25 years ago probably now has an office building or two, or a strip mall, all being served by the original circuits. On top of that, the range of electrical devices in a normal home has increased a lot in the past 20 years. There is also some guesswork involved. We use what's known as a diversity factor in estimating loads, the assumption that not every customer on a circuit will use maximum energy at the same time. The result is an educated guess at how large the transformers and conductors should be, and that guess can often be very wrong. At design time, it's all a crap shoot...
"...a photo album is like Life, but flat and stuck to pages." - Shog9
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Nimby and banana have kept spare generating capacity from growing as fast as consumer demand. The margine between normal use and peak capacity is steadily shrinking, consequently heatwave rolling blackouts are going to become more common as time passes. In the mean time, buy ice by the bag to keep your fridge/freezer cold.
dan neely wrote:
In the mean time, buy ice by the bag to keep your fridge/freezer cold.
Dry Ice will work better. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide#Dry_ice[^]
I'd love to help, but unfortunatley I have prior commitments monitoring the length of my grass. :Andrew Bleakley:
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We had that happen this past weekend. Our entire block electricity went out, got hot real fast. Fortunately they came out and fixed it not 2 hours out.
Tech, life, family, faith: Give me a visit. I'm currently blogging about: Messianic Instrumentals (with audio) The apostle Paul, modernly speaking: Epistles of Paul Judah Himango
Judah Himango wrote:
Fortunately they came out and fixed it not 2 hours out.
From listening to stories from around the country, we here in Minnesota are pretty lucky with NSP / Excel energy. They seem to be on top of issues pretty quickly.
I'd love to help, but unfortunatley I have prior commitments monitoring the length of my grass. :Andrew Bleakley:
