PG&E rolling blackouts during heatwave (Aug 14 2020 —> ?)

[Silicon Desert]

gee, California power production is beginning to look like China.

 

[Merrill]

w.r.t. disconnecting from the grid...



I just wanted to note that you can throw the Gateway breaker instead of the main breaker. That way the AC would remain powered so long as the grid remains up, but the rest of the house would come from your PW(s). This is what I did during simulated grid outage testing, so that my grid-side solar inverter could still provide power to the grid rather than simply go dark, while testing-out the GW/PW behavior with the grid down (which it senses at the GW's transfer switch, so just turning off the breaker that feeds the GW was sufficient).



Where did you find that?!?! I've been so frustrated with PG&E's website, I didn't need to find out what my block number is, I was here for the rolling blackouts 20 years ago, so I'm well aware of what my block number is. But I could never find out which blocks they were expecting to cut when, so knowing my block number was useless. And even the new page linked on this thread only seems to help you find your block number, not when your block is up in the rotation.

Same for me, cannot find when and if my rotating outage block is scheduled.

 

[miimura]

Same for me, cannot find when and if my rotating outage block is scheduled.

I linked to the web page that shows upcoming rotating blocks in Post #137 in this thread.

 

[SMAlset]

If you’ve added a solar and/or PW system to your home recently, don’t forget to add it to your Home Owners Insurance policy so it’s covered. Especially if you are in a wildfire area.

 

[SMAlset]

I have the PG&E planned rotating outages webpage bookmarked as well as the CAISO site that monitors the demand usage, stage of alerts and how close we are to a shutdown.

Here are the current 2 announced potential rotating outages as of noon today:

Here are the pertinent webpages:
PG&E rotating outage page (Scroll down). You can also look up your address for your Block number there if you don’t know it.
August 2020 record heatwave rotating outages

CAISO status on demand:
California ISO - Today's Outlook

Another important website is the AirNow website (Set to California) that monitors the air quality. Walked out to car just now and I’m seeing smoky air now at street level. At least covid has more people wearing masks.
State AQI | AirNow.gov

Stay safe everyone. Extremely challenging times right now.

 

[Merrill]

I linked to the web page that shows upcoming rotating blocks in Post #137 in this thread.

Ok, thanks

 

[israndy]

I took this photo yesterday afternoon. Hennessey Fire complex in Napa (looking across the Mayacamas from Sonoma).

Wow! Watching the Sacramento news and it's quite a panic up here in Yolo County trying to get out. 80 was closed when the fire jumped the 10 lanes of freeway, both sides and the median on fire and people were stranded in their cars as the freeway stopped.

 

[SMAlset]

Thought I would also post the link to CAL FIRE to keep tabs on the wildfires.

Welcome to CAL FIRE

We’ve seen some light ash on our cars and earlier detected a smoky smell in house. I’m really not sure what the situation will be fire wise or air quality wise come Friday when the guys are scheduled to be here to finish up. On Monday with the PW guys working in our garage and the threat of rotating shutdowns, we even put emergency lighting in the garage just in case they got left in the dark working. Many are worried about their homes still being there after evacuating. What a year.

 

[jjrandorin]

Thought I would also post the link to CAL FIRE to keep tabs on the wildfires.

Welcome to CAL FIRE

We’ve seen some light ash on our cars and earlier detected a smoky smell in house. I’m really not sure what the situation will be fire wise or air quality wise come Friday when the guys are scheduled to be here to finish up. On Monday with the PW guys working in our garage and the threat of rotating shutdowns, we even put emergency lighting in the garage just in case they got left in the dark working. Many are worried about their homes still being there after evacuating. What a year.

I was in a meeting today (virtual meeting) with people up there in northern california. One of the people from up there in the meeting said " 2020 is a dumpster fire and Now I have the ash on my car and home to prove it".

 

[SMAlset]

Earlier in this thread we were discussing a Block 50 Rotating Outage listing on your utility bill. I guess they had a number of people ask for clarification because today noticed this posted under the FAQ:

Good news for all of us with it, although I’m not that near a hospital or police station and still a distance from the closest fire station. I do know for purposes of PSPS, we and our surrounding neighborhood lost power during both of the PSPS events last October so guess we are not totally out of the woods for these planned outages.

Our former townhouse was down the block from a firestation and it was not in Block 50. Would be nice to know before buying how your place sits in their circuits.

 

[eevee-fan]

MCAS Miramar Helps San Diego Combat Rolling Blackouts

Marine base helps out San Diego!

We need V2G now! Let me define my preferred level to 60% capacity and allow the utility to use +/-10% of that. Oh, and pay me for the use.

Regardless, very glad for renewables as the rolling blackouts are not happening at noon - the "good old days".

 

[SMAlset]

I know a lot of people on this forum are from the SF Bay area so wanted to share some of this info.

We confirmed earlier Thursday we were still on for our 2nd day of install tomorrow. Been getting Emergency Alerts on my phone the last few days about the SCU Complex fire in the mountains to the east of San Jose's Mt. Hamilton Observatory and down though Gilroy area to Hwy 152 going over to the Central Valley (there are Tesla Superchargers along Hwy 101 in Morgan Hil and the Gilroy Outlets and at the Casa DaFruita/Hollister location on Hwy 152). Well looks like the fires are getting a lot closer tonight. The alert I got an hour ago places the fire "warning" closer to Hwy 101. Homes in the foothills near the reservoirs are now in the Evac zone. Fun night ahead. Hoping the winds keep fires into the less populated mountain areas east.

BTW here are two very good maps you guys might find helpful monitoring things; this first one not just for Calif or SF Bay area. From the airnow.gov website, for Air Quality, Smoke, and Satellite Fire Detection. Use Search to enter your area. Switches from Aerial view shown to Terrain/map view using the "stacked papers" icon in upper right.

The other map is from CAL FIRE, www.tinyurl.com/scu-evacmap , which is the map specfically for the SCU Complex fires. Orange is Evacuation, Yellow is Warning area.

 

[RubberToe]

Looks like the President is going to blame Democrats for the California power issues:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...en-by-blaming-democrats-california-blackouts/

It sure will be interesting to see whether the natural gas plants that experienced last minute "technical issues" that led them to not be available had any non-technical "external influences". Doesn't take but a single worked making a mistake to cause a lot of problems. Surely no one would intentionally cause a power plant to be shut down for political reasons, right?

RT

 

[jjrandorin]

Looks like the President is going to blame Democrats for the California power issues:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...en-by-blaming-democrats-california-blackouts/

It sure will be interesting to see whether the natural gas plants that experienced last minute "technical issues" that led them to not be available had any non-technical "external influences". Doesn't take but a single worked making a mistake to cause a lot of problems. Surely no one would intentionally cause a power plant to be shut down for political reasons, right?

RT

Please do not bring any political discussions into these threads. Take those to another part of the forum.

 

[SMAlset]

Not a problem with CAIOS supplying power today but the bad air quality from all the wildfires nixed our 2nd day of our install. Now set for Monday.