HEAT strains Power grid: but Europe puts lines und'gnd safe fm tree blkout

[oscar111]

Current heat wave straining US power grid. Link below.

But cool weather is coming to the NE, so there is hope for you in the NE who suffered thru that blkout 2? years ago.

Time to nationalize electric, as Brit did in '46. Just expand TVA nationwide.

ASIDE: many tree-limb caused blackouts could easily be avoided by doing what Europe does == puts lines underground. The months of no power in some areas of FL after hurricanes, are all unnecessary, says a DU post-er in the thread i link to below. Any comments, you Floridians here?

PS Great NE blackout was due to heat sagging a line, till it touched an untrimmed limb too near the power line. So IMHO, that blackout would have been prevented with the European idea of undergrounding all lines.
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Democratic Underground - Searing Heat Strains US Power Grid

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1659893

[Hav]

1. wow..

Why not abbreviating every word in order to make it completely impossible to know what the thread is about?
Seriously, the headline sounded like some foreign language.

[Dogmudgeon]

2. The Infrastructure Thing

Actually, an increasing number of power and utility lines ARE being installed underground, usually in PVC conduits, which makes servicing them a lot easier.

But there is still a lot of electrical grid that is strung from poles. Most municipalities do a pretty good job of keeping adjacent trees trimmed, but again, it's not a 100% job.

I also think that one of the pressing needs will be to distribute power production and generation. Community-sized energy projects will be able to handle multiple conversion projects involving biodiesels, thermal depolymerization, gasohols, methane, wind, solar, local hydro, etc. These new operations can be run as profit-making companies, local joint-stock companies, or entirely new business entities.

And don't count on the cool weather to last too long. There is a major heat wave in the Arctic which will keep summer temperatures higher than normal.

--p!

[dcfirefighter]

3. Population density

Folks in Europe live alot closer together, making it cheaper to run wires underground. Folks in US live further apart, making it more expensive. (Though plenty of cities still use above ground wires)

[htuttle]

4. What happens when you run an infrastructure for profit?

Corporations only invest what they have to invest to keep things running enough to keep the shareholders happy this quarter. When they invest too much money for future operations, the shareholders get unhappy that quarter, and the almighty stock price goes down.

I'm a sewer socialist on these things. Municipalities ought to own the power lines (and the telco/cable lines). If they want to contract power generation (and telco operations) out -- fine. But the City should own the wires just like it owns the streets and water lines. They are already usually on City property (that strip of land between the sidewalk and the street is usually theirs).

[dcfirefighter]

5. I'm with you

and i'm fairly libertarian. Never heard of 'sewer socialist', i like it.

It sort of generally support my theory that most taxes, especially local taxes, should be based on property values, with an exemption for buildings. If the locality makes improvements (good roads, hidden power lines, good schools, good public safety, transit) what goes up? Land prices. A million dollar house is often just a half million dollar house on a half million dollar lot.

[htuttle]

6. The term comes from Milwaukee, my former home

They had a couple of socialist mayors (oddly enough, one of them, Frank Zeidler, during the McCarthy era...) that came up with the term to describe the policy that 'a city should own everything that is important to running the city'.

Here's some history on it:
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/tp-043/?action=more_essay
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/tp-043/

One would think this would be self-evident, but it's not -- especially when you see things like privatized city snowplowing, etc...

[dcfirefighter]

7. thanks

i personally don't have a problem with contracting snow removal, but I get your gist.

[oscar111]

8. tuttle, water is privtized some cities

seems everything is private some stupid place or other.

even jails

... and the welfare case workers are "contract laborers" under a private greedhead some places. Desk right next to county welfare workers, like many contract worker situations in gov. now.

both recipies for disasrter for the folks under control.. prisoners and welfare recipients

[oscar111]

9. tuttle, private power plants not a good idea

pull profits out, instead of building more plants.. is one reason. Excess capacity for rare emergencies, is costly but saves lives in heat waves.

guess which model of ownership will build the plants, and which will not? Costing lives.

just like the flushot stockpile problem. Costs, to have excess, but saves lives when a big crunch comes.