> Due to yesterday’s fire in the Emerald Hills area, the main Stanford campus lost the power supplied by PG&E’s main transmission line to the campus. PG&E is providing a limited supply of power through a secondary line, but it falls far short of the normal needs of the campus. This limited supply is being used to maintain cooling for the hospital and other critical infrastructure on campus
Physical pentesting, performed by one M. Nature.
PG&E should have paid the forests in bitcoin to not ignite.
Am a Stanford PhD Student, can confirm this is kind of a big deal. At 2 30 yesterday I was in the middle of a zoom call in the CS building, and suddenly the lights went off (except emergency lights)and wifi died. I walked 25 over to my place on campus, and likewise no power or wifi. Some common spaces do have light via backup gas powered generators, though. Pretty crazy it's already been 24 hours and it might go on f…
Didn't Stanford have a Cogen facility there? I think they greenified the original GE plant. But does it not supply some needs or did they completely cut the cord?
Am a Stanford PhD Student, can confirm this is kind of a big deal. At 2 30 yesterday I was in the middle of a zoom call in the CS building, and suddenly the lights went off (except emergency lights)and wifi died. I walked 25 over to my place on campus, and likewise no power or wifi. Some common spaces do have light via backup gas powered generators, though. Pretty crazy it's already been 24 hours and it might go on f…
I wouldn't be so quick to blame PGE's lack of maintenance on global warming. The PGE lines by me are nearing 75 years old. Electrical poles just doesn't last 100s of years and it is nearing it's end of life. EVs, Heat Pumps, and Electric Stoves only put additional pressure on an antiquated grid.
I blame their lack of upgrading the grid or even performing trivial routine maintenance.
Do you know that ~all of Palo Alto can be knocked offline by breaking one line? This line happens to be under the flight path at the airport in the baylands and it got hit by a plane before. Whole city, no power, whole day. In the intervening years was an auxiliary line into the city built? What do you suppose?
Am a Stanford PhD Student, can confirm this is kind of a big deal. At 2 30 yesterday I was in the middle of a zoom call in the CS building, and suddenly the lights went off (except emergency lights)and wifi died. I walked 25 over to my place on campus, and likewise no power or wifi. Some common spaces do have light via backup gas powered generators, though. Pretty crazy it's already been 24 hours and it might go on f…
Didn't Stanford have a Cogen facility there? I think they greenified the original GE plant. But does it not supply some needs or did they completely cut the cord?
I believe there used to be one, but it got knocked down to build the new Neuroscience / Chem-H building on campus drive? I thought they put auxiliary backup power system in as part of the hospital expansion, but it might only cover the hospital?
From the NBC news: Stanford University cancelled summer session classes Wednesday following ongoing power outages in the area. According to the university, the power outages were a consequence of the Edgewood Fire burning in San Mateo County. "Due to yesterday’s fire in the Emerald Hills area, the main Stanford campus lost the power supplied by PG&E’s main transmission line to the campus. PG&E is providing a limited…
The PG&E grid isn’t designed properly if the failure of one transmission line causes an outage like this. I live in New York City and pay some of the highest rates in the country for electricity, but over the past 10 years (including multiple hurricanes), I’ve had less than 10 minutes of downtime, and even that was only on one of three phases.
If you got the best names in the business together, gave them billions of dollars, and told them to design a power grid to fail and cause forest fires, they'd fall embarrassingly short of whatever it is PG&E has created.
Didn't Stanford have a Cogen facility there? I think they greenified the original GE plant. But does it not supply some needs or did they completely cut the cord?
I believe there used to be one, but it got knocked down to build the new Neuroscience / Chem-H building on campus drive? I thought they put auxiliary backup power system in as part of the hospital expansion, but it might only cover the hospital?
Oh, Ok, that makes sense. I didn't realize they didn't replace the generation capacity elsewhere --but yeah the hospital would take precedence over university operations.
The PG&E grid isn’t designed properly if the failure of one transmission line causes an outage like this. I live in New York City and pay some of the highest rates in the country for electricity, but over the past 10 years (including multiple hurricanes), I’ve had less than 10 minutes of downtime, and even that was only on one of three phases.
If you got the best names in the business together, gave them billions of dollars, and told them to design a power grid to fail and cause forest fires, they'd fall embarrassingly short of whatever it is PG&E has created.
I wouldn't be so quick to blame PGE's lack of maintenance on global warming. The PGE lines by me are nearing 75 years old. Electrical poles just doesn't last 100s of years and it is nearing it's end of life. EVs, Heat Pumps, and Electric Stoves only put additional pressure on an antiquated grid.
I blame their lack of upgrading the grid or even performing trivial routine maintenance. Do you know that ~all of Palo Alto can be knocked offline by breaking one line? This line happens to be under the flight path at the airport in the baylands and it got hit by a plane before. Whole city, no power, whole day. In the intervening years was an auxiliary line into the city built? What do you suppose?
Most of SF's water and power also is under that flight path. PAO should be shut down as it's an environmental disaster and has caused lead poisoning to the surrounding community.