Tropical Depression 2

[ggunn]

It's your state/city. You guys can do what you wish. Florida is taking a very different approach and is hardening the grid over time. FPL has been working down here in SWFL pretty much non-stop since Ian to meaningfully harden the grid. You don't have to get to 100%. Not sure that is even possible. But steps can be taken over time that really start to make a difference.

Who pays for it? We all do! Pay now, or pay later, we are all paying regardless. Taking steps over time to harden the grid in ways @Manatee Diver has mentioned is the only logical path forward IMO.

As I said, it's easy to see what someone else should do; I do it all the time.

 

[DandyDon]

Florida or Texas: Either you buy and maintain a generator or you improvise until the power company gets to your repairs. I did mention that state parks are offering free spaces for evacuees. I hate generators in campgrounds tho.

 

[Dave Dillehay]

Florida or Texas: Either you buy and maintain a generator or you improvise until the power company gets to your repairs. I did mention that state parks are offering free spaces for evacuees. I hate generators in campgrounds tho.

Those that express surprise at "all" the damage from such a "small" hurricane need to think that several million + people were exposed to the eyewall. Sustained winds of 90 mph with stronger gusts, and being on the wrong side adds 12 mph—all with tornados!. It probably is lucky that much more damage did not occur.

DAVE DILLEHAY

 

[Manatee Diver]

As I said, it's easy to see what someone else should do; I do it all the time.

Except we are talking about something obvious, we aren't looking back with 20/20 hindsight at an unprecedented event like the 2021 polar vortex. Houston gets hit with a storm every few years. And one should expect better from the TDU for your area. People need to complain to the PUC and your state elected officals, 15 years was plenty of time to start making improvements to the grid.

 

[ReefHound]

If your MV distribution lines are underground or overhead with no large trees near them, power restoration can be pretty quick. Such is not the case in Houston.

That's why you design your infrastructure around your geography. Knowing there are many tall trees in the area, the lines should be better protected if not underground in those areas.

 

[ReefHound]

That is armchair quarterbacking, no offense intended. Moving all the distribution lines underground in older, densely populated residential areas would be hideously expensive, and removing every tree that could fall on an OH line isn't feasible when the trees are much taller than the poles supporting the lines. And who would pay for all that? Sure, recovery is expensive but it's far cheaper than conversion would be.

It is easy to say what should be done if you aren't the one who would have to do it. Incidentally, Houston is indeed working on hardening their internal grid, but it cannot all be done at once. It has been ongoing for decades.

Apparently, the more they "harden" the softer the system gets. You don't have to go UG in every location. Start with where you can. All of our natural gas and water lines are UG and those utilities are a lot cheaper than our electricity.

 

[ReefHound]

Best I could find was a Reuters article from 9/23/2008 that said CP expected half of customers to be restored by 10 days. Maybe not 4-6 weeks but definitely 3-4 for many.

CenterPoint to restore half its customers by Sept 23

CenterPoint Energy, the major utility serving Houston, said it hopes by next Tuesday, September 23, to have restored power to more than half the 2.1 million customers who lost power following Hurricane Ike.

www.reuters.com

 

[ggunn]

My friend in Garden Oaks is still without utility power, but the contractor who told him that his new generator would be installed Tuesday July 9 (yesterday) was surprisingly right on time in spite of it being the day after the hurricane.

 

[ggunn]

That's why you design your infrastructure around your geography. Knowing there are many tall trees in the area, the lines should be better protected if not underground in those areas.

You live in Houston; are you doing anything to help make that happen? As you know, Houston's electrical infrastructure is very old; in my friend's densely populated neighborhood the MV distribution lines and LV supply lines are on poles that are sometimes in people's back yards.

 

[greeniguana]

You live in Houston; are you doing anything to help make that happen? As you know, Houston's electrical infrastructure is very old; in my friend's densely populated neighborhood the MV distribution lines and LV supply lines are on poles that are sometimes in people's back yards.

Which would require easements/agreements for each parcel. An insurmountable task.