Santiago Peak power
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@xilix:
[Add] If you can believe the ticket status, "A field investigator has been alerted and is on route to the outage." took over a week. That's just inexcusable.
They ought to at least partially weight the customer with size of service to account for things like hotels, hospitals, radio sites, etc. I'd expect that a hospital would not have been down for a week, so there must be some kind of prioritization. Maybe it's just a squeaky-wheel issue and someone should have gotten the local news interested in it early.
[Add] If you can believe the ticket status, "A field investigator has been alerted and is on route to the outage." took over a week. That's just inexcusable.
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Special crews are needed dealing with high value and special assets. Those are not your residential or regular commercial customers. Your average res/comm field lineman is not assigned to these cases. Things take time to do them safely and also be cost effective when dealing with remote radio sites. It's not like dealing with a 220v drop into your laundry room.
The Santiago customers are aware things can take time, that's part of the deal.
Have you ever driven the dirt roads up to the peak? It's difficult to say the least in a four wheel drive truck, I can imagine even harder in those work trucks after the rains and snow we had this last winter. Landslides and washouts on the roads?
Yes they can use helicopters to maybe find the trouble spot but they still have to get the crews to it.
I would think Edison also has equipment up there that requires power to be supplied. With budget cuts (who doesn't need to do budget cuts these days?) they did the best they could do under the circumstances.
Yes they can use helicopters to maybe find the trouble spot but they still have to get the crews to it.
I would think Edison also has equipment up there that requires power to be supplied. With budget cuts (who doesn't need to do budget cuts these days?) they did the best they could do under the circumstances.
techman210
Member
Not to be an apologist for Southern California Edison, but usually what happens an old dead tree falls across the lines.
Edison will typically send somebody up to the top to make sure your high voltage transformer isn’t getting voltage.
Then you have to “fly” The lines. Over the last two weeks, there have been overcast clouds that prevented this from happening.
Once that is done, they have to figure out what needs to be done and what assets need to be used. The first indication of something happening is looking at adsbexchange.com and looking at aircraft where the call sign ends in CE which is their owned or leased aircraft.
They will typically be used to surveil the lines or assist in planting new lines and poles. A lot of the poles are in the wilderness areas and cannot be accessed by trails for vehicles.
So once the weather clears and the roads are good, repairs can be made.
It’s not reasonable to think a mountain top site can be repaired as fast as a hospital in a city area.
Edison will typically send somebody up to the top to make sure your high voltage transformer isn’t getting voltage.
Then you have to “fly” The lines. Over the last two weeks, there have been overcast clouds that prevented this from happening.
Once that is done, they have to figure out what needs to be done and what assets need to be used. The first indication of something happening is looking at adsbexchange.com and looking at aircraft where the call sign ends in CE which is their owned or leased aircraft.
They will typically be used to surveil the lines or assist in planting new lines and poles. A lot of the poles are in the wilderness areas and cannot be accessed by trails for vehicles.
So once the weather clears and the roads are good, repairs can be made.
It’s not reasonable to think a mountain top site can be repaired as fast as a hospital in a city area.
I've been up and down that mountain many times, in rain and snow, dealt with broken vehicles and worse, FWIW.
Someone was told early on that the cause was vehicle vs. pole at or near ground level, which is why I questioned the status. I imagine the details will come out in due time.
Someone was told early on that the cause was vehicle vs. pole at or near ground level, which is why I questioned the status. I imagine the details will come out in due time.
monitor142
Member
The cause of the outage was a car vs. pole on Live Oak Canyon Rd. That impacted the feed that runs up the mountain to Santiago and Modjeska Peaks. Who knows why it took so long to repair...SMH
Outage # : 800237161
A friend is on Santiago as I’m typing this assessing some equipment and antennas.
That makes sense. I was just up there early this morning. When I was finished looking at the genset issues and other stuff I drove around all of the buildings and did not see any damage to any Edison transformers on their pads. As I recalled the power lines cross over the road in two places but the poles couldn't be hit by a car unless the car launched into the air and hurtled downslope. Two pix show the lines heading uphill in rugged terrain. The lines go into the ground before and south west of the first building (#1) at that end so there are no exposed poles anywhere near the towers that a car could hit.
I'm back!
I would have gone with you but I’m still near Boston in the ca looking for some good chowda.
That is great sleuthing!
marcosorourke
Member
Oh man, I leave the state and there's all this fun happening on Santiago Peak? In my time being responsible for the broadcaster up there, I've had a lot of conversations with SCE. Never really went anywhere.
Usually, power outages are caused by accidents down the hill. I think in the 20 years I was up there, ice damage to the power lines was only a few times (compared to accidents).
Usually, power outages are caused by accidents down the hill. I think in the 20 years I was up there, ice damage to the power lines was only a few times (compared to accidents).
I think you used to also run the webcam on the broadcasters tower? I always appreciated the custom pans over my building during the last big fire season! It let me know nothing had been melted or incinerated.
Gotta love all the webcam coverage on sites now. UCSD HPWREN is particularly impressive.
p1879
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Maybe it is the same content--my apologies if same--but this UCSD site seems to present many more sites, statewide:
Both those sites are impressive.
Could be useful during the fire season.
Could be useful during the fire season.
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