No power problems to the south of town..

my power went out last week.  i thin it was thursday.  thankfully pg&e was able to fix it quickly. it was only out for about an hour and a half.

So far so good around Stockdale & California.  Although we usually are affected.  I would say I would keep you posted but that might be challenging with no power, huh?

Good point, Mrs. E. .. Kinda hard to post a comment if your power is out -- unless you have wireless mobile on a smart phone or laptop ... or keep carrier pigeons in the back yard.

Either way, keep us posted when you're able.

I've had several flickers the past couple of days. I was also close to the outage last week and had several flickers when that occurred. So far, the worst damage was a fish tank left without a filter (power was off long enough to let the siphon break) while I was over at my parents house this weekend. I got back in time to rescue my fine finned friends though.

And the most annoying power flicker was when I was sitting in the left turn lane off Ashe onto Ming last night. The power went out at just the right time to mess up the signal so I didn't get a green light when I was supposed to, but wasn't out long enough to cross through the intersection. So I was stuck at that intersection until the next time it was my turn to get the green light. I've noticed lots of signals have been flashing red this weekend too. Not sure if that's related to the power flickers, but let me tell you it was nail biting getting through Ming and Wible yesterday when it was out because people were not acting in an orderly fashion.

Bakersfield drivers not acting in an orderly fashion?

I'm shocked!  ;-)

I still remember my amazement at how people got into a nice, orderly pattern when the lights at Oak and Truxtun went out years ago. Every set of lanes took a turn and everyone waited until their turn was up. I passed through as the traffic cop got there and even he had a look of amazement on his face. I guess that was once in a lifetime, at least around here.

Still on!!!

power went out in oildale north of norris at about 1:15

pg&e's earliest estimate to return power is 4:15

 Excuse me, but aren't those million dollar "smart meters" supposed to keep that from happening?

No, they're supposed to make it easier to *DO* that.

Randomfactor -- easier to do what?

To cut power selectively to customers in order to "balance" the load.  I believe the meters give the utility realtime info as to where the most power is being used.

Some--not many--customers also have a switch installed to allow PG&E to cut off their air conditioners remotely to save power.  They get some kind of rate break for this.

 ahh ...

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

thanks for the memories.

--virgil

Check out my new profile pic.  It's the thermometer on my patio...

It was dark and cool in my house all day.  Napping weather.

We had our share of outages last year.  One blackout happened on one of the hottest days of last summer and went on for hours and hours. 

I wish I could hibernate until Oct 1.

RF, PG&E does not cut residential ACs on that program. They just charge you an arm and a leg if you choose to use the AC (or any electricity) during the stated period of time. They need the Smart meter for this because it tells them when you are using power. And Reformer, the Smart meters can't prevent blackouts, but they can help PG&E pinpoint exactly which customers are affected because they'll be the ones whose Smart meters just fell off the grid.

last week my power went out in half the house...the other half was like a brownout.  Never have had that happen ANYWHERE before.  My neighbor across the street was having the same issue and was ready to call an electrician til they heard mine was the same.

I left for work about 11:15 am and got home abound 4.  The power had been off as the stove clock and the phone were blinking.  The cable and internet service was out and still is.  I don't know if it all over or just mine or if it had anything to do with the power outage but it's a nuisance for people with ebay auctions ending today (like me.)

That makes two power outages in about 5 day.  I am NOT pleased.  I had the a/c set on 82 and not a thing was running in the house so I shouldn't have been affected.

I hooked up to a phone line and signed on the Netzero...free for 3 months.  I haven't used dial up in years but ya gotta do what ya gotta do.  I'm sitting at the kitchen counter where the phone jack is and this stool is mighty uncomfortable.  I got my coupon cards in the mail today and will be off to buy a converter box.  Brighthouse has messed me up enough..I'm dumping cable.  I may dump internet too.  We'll see.  What I don't like about this is that I can't use both computers at the same time like I do to speed up listings.  AND I  don't like that I'm not in the living room..the kitchen is HOT.

No problems with outages here on the west side, unless you count the exploitation of the "Care" program.

Half the house being out, if you have just one meter, would suggest some sort of dirty power issue that caused some breakers to trip. If you have multiple meters, then half your house could have a blackout. But if you have one meter, you have only one tie-in to the grid (e.g. only one plug to PG&E), so the whole house would be out in an actual blackout. Having only half the house out suggests it's the house's breaker box with the issue. The main line could have been the trigger for the breaker problem though. That would affect others in the neighborhood, particularly if they had the same sort of breakers you do. Always check the breaker box whenever something like that happens.

We have lived in the same NE house for 20 years.  We have never lost power due to a brownout,  Our only outages have been for bad stormy weather and cars hitting power poles with an occasional transformer explosion,  There have been about 6 power outages in those 20 years.  I have called PG&E every time and they usually discount my bill because of my being inconvenienced.    I did however have problems similar to Nancy;s where only half of my house had power. Only some of my outlets worked and in some rooms the light switches did nothing but the outlets still worked.  I had to put a table lamp in the master bathroom because the ceiling lights would not come on.  I called an electrician and he suggested that I call PG&E first.   PG&E came out and determined that the power line coming from the pole to my house had corrosion at the house end.  They cut the wire and stripped back the insulation and reconnected the wire.  Problem solved....no charge.    

last week my power went low, major appliances and electronics went off, but the lights were on very dim for a while.  then everything went completely out.  nancy, did yours happen on thursday?  i think thats when my first outage happened.  we may be on the same power block or whatever it's called.

Shwain, note that I said my neighbors house across the street was doing the same thing.  I was married to an electrician and was his finish electrician as well as secretary, bookkeeper, wire puller and about everything wlse you can name.   The FIRST thing I check is the breaker box.  Since my neighbor was having the same problem it's not likely it had anything to do with breakers.

Cable was out again the other day so I called ...finally.  I was told it was a fire and had damaged some equipment.  That was cable/internet.  I'm guessing the weird power outage was due to some damage to PG&E equipment as well.

Thanks for trying to help.