San Bernardino Mountains power is out

[DarkHorseRacing]

Power is out across the whole hill since 4 this morning. Not sure if its coming back on later tonight or even tomorrow morning.

Just an FYI to anyone looking to come up for the weekend.

I'll post up when it comes back on.

 

[jeteater1]

Ya went to get gas and only place open was Shell in 5 points and Cedar glenn

 

[DarkHorseRacing]

Everyone is swarming the markets, they have generators and are open so peeps are grabbing hot food and anything they can cook at home in some limited fashion.

Signals are also out, of the few that are up here.

 

[lbhsbz]

buddy of mine in Acton had to all the way to Lancaster to get fuel for the generator.

If you're out driving around....fill up often

 

[oldman]

It's amazing how generally ill prepared people are, Also how they panic when the smallest thing in their world changes.

 

[BoatCop]

I read where the power companies are shutting down in areas susceptible to wildfire. Not sure who powers the SBC mountains.

 

[wishiknew]

I read where the power companies are shutting down in areas susceptible to wildfire. Not sure who powers the SBC mountains.

I think mostly Edison

 

[DarkHorseRacing]

I read where the power companies are shutting down in areas susceptible to wildfire. Not sure who powers the SBC mountains.

Its Edison.

Someone said Edison had a feed line up the mountain have some kind of issue and that it could only be fixed by helicopter. Its still really windy up here so I can't imagine Edison is interested in fixing it until then wind dies down.

I'm guessing power will be down until at least tomorrow.

 

[oldman]

Its Edison.

Someone said Edison had a feed line up the mountain have some kind of issue and that it could only be fixed by helicopter. Its still really windy up here so I can't imagine Edison is interested in fixing it until then wind dies down.

I'm guessing power will be down until at least tomorrow.

They have three lines that run from the valley up the mountain, 33KV, that they step down to 12kv at sub stations, and distribute. they can switch around those lines to manage power. ( I was involved, and you mentioned all the outages during the big mountain rebuild) i'm out of the loop so no telling what they are working on.

Big Bear is their own utility.

 

[oldman]

Its Edison.

Someone said Edison had a feed line up the mountain have some kind of issue and that it could only be fixed by helicopter. Its still really windy up here so I can't imagine Edison is interested in fixing it until then wind dies down.

I'm guessing power will be down until at least tomorrow.

I would guess your relatively prepared to be in the dark over night.

 

[DarkHorseRacing]

I would guess your relatively prepared to be in the dark over night.

I have a natgas whole home genset so other than the drone of it outside I'm operating normally.

I also have an 8k/10k portable gas genset. I just charged the starting battery (can pull start it too) and just ran it for 10 minutes before shutting the gas tank off.

If the whole home unit goes down for some reason the backup will at least run the essentials.

Now I'm hearing power up here could be out until Sunday. Just rolling with it.

 

[DarkHorseRacing]

They have three lines that run from the valley up the mountain, 33KV, that they step down to 12kv at sub stations, and distribute. they can switch around those lines to manage power. ( I was involved, and you mentioned all the outages during the big mountain rebuild) i'm out of the loop so no telling what they are working on.

Big Bear is their own utility.

So would you say that one 33kv line goes to crestline, 1 to Arrowhead and 1 to Running Springs?

Big bear is independent or it draws off one of those feed lines?

 

[oldman]

So would you say that one 33kv line goes to crestline, 1 to Arrowhead and 1 to Running Springs?

Big bear is independent or it draws off one of those feed lines?

Big Bear does not use those lines.
And the three lines that come up the mountain one roughly comes up around the 18 but does not follow the road, one comes up from the valley to the east out by Old School Road. and the third comes up west of Sky park from what I remember, I could be wrong, If your out of lights and Helos are involved its back in the wilderness, either stringing wire or replacing poles, not truck access.

They are all tied together, roughly

 

[RIVERBORN]

My cousin lives in San Bernardino. Lost power yesterday I think and they said no power until Monday.

 

[DarkHorseRacing]

My cousin lives in San Bernardino. Lost power yesterday I think and they said no power until Monday.

I work in San Bernardino. Our EOC said late Friday so far but obviously the winds need to die down and stay down before Edison will start surveys and those could take 8-12 hours to complete. So I'm hoping for Saturday.

But always better to underpromise and overdeliver. If they state Sunday…we’ll see.

 

[oldman]

I work in San Bernardino. Our EOC said late Friday so far but obviously the winds need to die down and stay down before Edison will start surveys and those could take 8-12 hours to complete. So I'm hoping for Saturday.

But always better to underpromise and overdeliver. If they state Sunday…we’ll see.

Once they de-energize they have to patrol all the overhead to insure it's in tact, it's a painful process, trust me the guys would rather just try and keep the lights on.
I hated the damn patrol.

 

[RitcheyRch]

There was no fire near Castaic and SCE shut down my daughters power for 4 days.

 

[DarkHorseRacing]

Update. Because the power has been down, Charter, in their infinite wisdom doesn't seem to run backup generators, just battery backups on their nodes. Consequently their internet went down this morning around 2:30am.

Cell service is spotty enough, without decent home wifi and internet service it sucks trying to work off your phone.

I'm seriously considering Starlink of some type to get a backup for these times. My only concern is the trees im surrounded by. Not sure how happy it would be.

 

[rivermobster]

Update. Because the power has been down, Charter, in their infinite wisdom doesn't seem to run backup generators, just battery backups on their nodes. Consequently their internet went down this morning around 2:30am.

Cell service is spotty enough, without decent home wifi and internet service it sucks trying to work off your phone.

I'm seriously considering Starlink of some type to get a backup for these times. My only concern is the trees im surrounded by. Not sure how happy it would be.

My SIL has the mini mobile one, cause she works all over SoCal. She loves it.

 

[CLdrinker]

@oldman nailed it on the SB mountain issue.

I would like to provide some input to why many people are with out power even though there is no fire at your house or no wind.

The grid is very large. Power is not generated at your meter. The feed point to your home originates hundreds of miles away. So if there is an issue between the original feed point Also known as generation to your home you can be without power. Now we do have switching procedures in place to move load around and pick up customers that are down. But sometimes the circuit tie is down as well.

I think people take things for granted, power being one of them. It takes allot of work to make sure your light turns on when you flip that switch. 90% of the time it works.

I will be the first to tell you the utility industry is far from perfect, but we do have 1,000’s of good people who are trying to get your power back up. We don’t want you without anymore than you do.

We spend billions a year maintaining our infrastructure to avoid this, but when 100mph wind gusts happen there isn’t much we can do.

BTW CPUC has listened to your complaints about cost increases and they are pulling funding and rate increases that directly reduce all of the utility overhead to underground projects.

SDGE just reduced this years forecast from 150 miles to 35 miles.

This is a big ship to turn we are doing our best.

 

[oldman]

@oldman nailed it on the SB mountain issue.

I would like to provide some input to why many people are with out power even though there is no fire at your house or no wind.

The grid is very large. Power is not generated at your meter. The feed point to your home originates hundreds of miles away. So if there is an issue between the original feed point Also known as generation to your home you can be without power. Now we do have switching procedures in place to move load around and pick up customers that are down. But sometimes the circuit tie is down as well.

I think people take things for granted, power being one of them. It takes allot of work to make sure your light turns on when you flip that switch. 90% of the time it works.

I will be the first to tell you the utility industry is far from perfect, but we do have 1,000’s of good people who are trying to get your power back up. We don’t want you without anymore than you do.

We spend billions a year maintaining our infrastructure to avoid this, but when 100mph wind gusts happen there isn’t much we can do.

BTW CPUC has listened to your complaints about cost increases and they are pulling funding and rate increases that directly reduce all of the utility overhead to underground projects.

SDGE just reduced this years forecast from 150 miles to 35 miles.

This is a big ship to turn we are doing our best.

Much more articulate than I could have put it.... I is just a dumb knuckledragger

Thank you ! !

 

[DarkHorseRacing]

Update. I hear power is slowly coming back on to the mountain communities. They are turning on neighborhoods one at a time.

And apparently Charter was included in that as the internet just came back up recently.

I'd love to give my genny a rest, its a trooper.

 

[Chili Palmer]

The power has been out at the 138/15 intersection. The signal was flashing and only the 76 station had power, but this evening everything was dark.

 

[DarkHorseRacing]

Just got my power back in my hood. If you don't have it yet, it should be soon. Thankfully tonight and not Saturday or even Sunday.

Now we wait and see if the next wind event on Sunday or Monday sets off the next outage. The poor generator will barely be cool.

 

[SkyDirtWaterguy]

But what about the toilet paper supply? The last crisis it seemed to be a hot commodity.

 

[Brokeboatin221]

Mine came on around 5ish. No need for toilet paper that’s what underwear are for