Bad service.. from both the power company and 911.

[Andara Bledin]

It's amazing what something so small as a little bit of communication can do for a situation.

^-.-^

[mattm04]

Wow. I know of a situation at a local town building, where the power co was aware of a problem with a transformer or something for months, no major storms preventing them form fixing it ASAP. Well something happened late at night and caused the 3-phase hydraulic pump for the elevator, which was running at the time smoke. It set off the fire alarm and in the end the POwer Co had to pay almost $30K in damages to the elevator and HVAC equipment because they never fixed it on time.

A large tree branch fell on a power line on my street causing archs and a fire in the tree. I called 911 and FD was on the scene within in minutes followed by PD a minute or so later. They blocked of the road a a power crew showed up in about 20-25 minutes. They shut off the power, FD put out the tree and within a hour the was almost fully repaired. The next day a crew came by to remove the burnt tree branches.

[Primer]

Bean, I just sent a message to my friend. There is a good chance there may be a news crew coming around to check things out.

[Catwoman2965]

You may have already found this info, but definitely file a complaint with the PUC - here's the info:

http://www.puc.state.tx.us/ocp/complaints/complain.cfm

NO excuse at all why you had live wires live for so long. Even if they couldn't come and fix it right away, at least shut off the power!

[r2cagle]

NO excuse at all why you had live wires live for so long. Even if they couldn't come and fix it right away, at least shut off the power!

The utility company won't shut off the power unless it's an immediate life-threatening emergency. That would have left, at least one whole apartment building, without power for who knows how long. (Talk about irate customers, then) As scary as a tree on fire, wires arcing, power surging is, it happens alot more than most people think.

More alarming was the seeming lack of communication from the utility... but, per Bean that seems to have been resolved. Not the best of news, but I didn't realize they were still fixing damages from the snow.... that snow was a couple weeks ago. But goes to show... the southern states aren't really prepared for cold weather.

[bean]

Wow. I know of a situation at a local town building, where the power co was aware of a problem with a transformer or something for months, no major storms preventing them form fixing it ASAP. Well something happened late at night and caused the 3-phase hydraulic pump for the elevator, which was running at the time smoke. It set off the fire alarm and in the end the POwer Co had to pay almost $30K in damages to the elevator and HVAC equipment because they never fixed it on time.

YOUCH. Nothing like losing a phase and not having phase-loss equipment in place to shut down the motors. 3 phase motors really, really hate running on 2 phases.

We lost a phase at my store a couple of years ago, partly poco, partly our equipment. Apparently something caused a nasty short during a storm outside, and all 3 phases started going off and on constantly (people in the store said it was like a party, all the lights were strobing off and on), followed by a really loud BANG! inside the store and everything going out for the rest of the night. Power was restored overnight, or so we thought...

Turns out the bang was one of our main breakers exploding - knocking out one full phase for half of the store (we have 2 transformers serving us, since the store was originally half the size it is now). All of our refrigeration is 3 phase. Our phone system, alarm system, fire alarm, and some other odds and ends, some offices, and lighting, were also on that phase. We lost a *ton* of product that day, only a couple of walk-in coolers stayed on, and only because they were on the "old" side of the store. Register servers were also down, though the registers themselves still had power (but couldn't actually do anything since the servers were down).

We finally opened around 1pm the next day - we couldn't open without full power or registers. Thankfully even though grocery's display freezers were down, they never fully thawed, so we were able to just fire them back up and let the contents get back down to 0F again.

More importantly, we didn't lose any equipment aside from one pretty hefty breaker (1000 amp, you have to wear arc flash resistant clothing to even open that panel) - all of the 3 phase equipment has phase loss detectors, as do all of the 3 phase breaker panels. 1 phase goes out? Everything that needs 3 phases goes kaput. Unfortunately that also includes our HVAC system.

[bean]

Grr... power just crapped out again, and once again, a huge fireball from where power lines are bumping uglies.

Fire department showed up quick this time, and it was actually Dallas FD - they were in the parking lot before the power came back on. Except this time it's not windy at all.

Edit: No, I didn't call FD - they were already here by the time I got outside.

[repsac]

Years ago, we had a problem with ice causing a tree to fall onto some three phase. After calling Georgia power a couple times, they finally sent a crew out. All the while we're watching this tree make loud zapping sounds and rather pretty colors. (It actually was pretty.)

The power guys stood back and didn't do a thing, just watching as this thing arced and popped, and then finally when it got low enough to cross all of the three phase wires, there was a loud BANG! followed by two others. Power went off and that's when the power guys reacted. They calmly walked over and cut the top out of the tree, letting it fall to the road where the road crew swept it off. Then they went back and threw the big breaker on the pole, and left.

Apparently, from talking with the police on the scene; this was the way they always handled trees that landed on wires.

We were not impressed.

[wolfie]

YOUCH. Nothing like losing a phase and not having phase-loss equipment in place to shut down the motors. 3 phase motors really, really hate running on 2 phases.

The machine shop where I used to work lost a phase once. All the lights went out (and the machines stopped), then the lights gradually came back on (typical behaviour of that kind of lighting), but the emergency lighting was on as well. Roughly 1/3 of the milling machines wouldn't work at all, and cow-irkers (TM Dilbert) complained that those were gutless. I told them to stop or they'd burn out the motors trying to run them on 2 phases, but some of them were dumber than dog squat (the magnetic starters for the machines ran off one phase - it was a roll of the dice which phase was used on which machine, so the ones with the starter running off the dead phase wouldn't start).

Of course, when the power company got around to fixing things, they had to take down all 3 phases. Since the emergency lights had drained their batteries by this time, we were left in the dark. Major fail putting the building lights and emergency lights on different phases - if they'd been on the same phase, either the emergency lights would have shut off when the main lights came back, or the emergency lights would have NEEDED to stay on.

[bean]

Well, Oncor did some trimming today. And by trimming, I mean they hacked away about half of each tree near the poles. Still, it needed to be done, and if it had been done regularly by either Oncor or the property management, the end result would have been much more appealing. If management had done it regularly and kept the trees away from the lines, they could do it safely and regularly themselves. As it is I'm sure the property management is pissed about their trees being hacked up.

They.. also removed the rubber covers on the lines in question, but haven't made any attempt to fix the leaning pole (which is now EXTREMELY charred). They've also reconnected the previously disconnected ground wire, which is sitting way too close to the live wires now.

I suspect it's going to be more of the same next time the wind kicks up. The pole in question really needs to be re-set or replaced - it's supported only by a fence at this point, along with one of the wires. At least now, the voltage is stable and the power hasn't gone out since sometime after I left for work today (the power was off when I left).

At least there's some progress.

[Salted Grump]

Five bucks says that after the next storm there's gonna be a horizontal power pole outside and no juice for a few days while oncor gets its thumb out.

[bean]

Mama taught me not to take losing bets.

[Mystic]

There is no excuse for this, behind in work or not. You cannot leave power on like that in a dangerous position.

I would be on the phone with the local news in a heartbeat if that ever happened around here and then whoever I needed to contact to have these people nailed for endangering the lives of other. Live power is not something to take lightly. It's very dangerous if not treated with respect, which this company obviously does not.

[bean]

Live power is not something to take lightly

But it makes light! How can we not take light lightly?!

Sorry... trying to make humor in a bad thread. I've filed a complaint with the PUC, and it's official, the tree trimming hasn't fixed shit, my power has gone out once already tonight...

[ralerin]

Next step would be to call the news, I think.

You know what's stupid? PS here are always bitched at about horrible customer service. Well, from the windstorm a month or so back, the longest people went without power was one week. Most of the affected cities were up and running in about 3 days. Power crews were called in from other states to help and the job was done, quickly. They wouldn't have DARED to drag out a thing like this.