Why Long Distance Transmission is Not Reliable

6/8/2014

Just one more example of the fragility of our ever-expanding high voltage transmission grid, this time from Idaho:

The entire Wood River Valley and south as far as Shoshone, west to Fairfield and east to Carey lost power at 2:40 p.m.
Lynette Berriochoa, Idaho Power communications leader, said the outage could have been a deliberate act of vandalism.
“After 13 hours of repairs overnight to a damaged line northeast of Shoshone, Idaho Power crews discovered that the broken wire that fell to the ground may have been weakened by a gunshot,” Berriochoa said. “It’s rare, but we have seen this kind of unfortunate vandalism before. It’s very costly and a huge inconvenience.”

Who's protecting the thousands of miles of high voltage transmission in remote areas?

Nobody.

6 Comments

Captain Trips

6/8/2014 09:45:49 pm

Didn't I read that Idaho Power has filed a PUC petition to increase their rates to fix this problem? Yeah, it's for $16.4 trillion to make the lines bullet proof, and to install security guard stations every 35 yards along the right-of-ways, and to develop a program in Idaho school system that teaches kids how to just say no to vandalism.

In a related story, I read that every manufacturing company in the state is moving operations due to the 4,500% hike in electricity rates. One CEO was quoted as saying: "Yes, they're guaranteeing 100% reliability and many of our layed off workers have been offered jobs as transmission line guards."

Keryn

6/8/2014 10:47:10 pm

Ahh... that's what I like about you, Captain!

Matthew

6/9/2014 01:07:04 am

It's a good thing most rural people against eminent domain for private gain still maintain a level of integrity, if they were to have the despicable character of a certain land grab company president, management, staff or land agents, I don't think proposed transmission lines would stand a chance left all alone through hundreds of miles of countryside. Those 17,000 customers were without power in the middle of the afternoon, wonder what the economic loss was? — see the photo of the boarded up meat refrigerator. Is the increased vulnerability and the costs associated with it figured into the economic "studies" done by certain for-profit companies? Where would the liability lie?

Keryn

6/9/2014 02:34:37 am

I doubt it. No costs were included to balance out the "benefits" in the economic studies. All of the good, none of the bad.

Has Clean Line asked all its intended "customers" in "states farther east" if they want to be dependent on transmission lines thousands of miles long to keep their meat cool?

No.

Have you ever read "Powerline, The First Battle of America's Energy War," Matthew? I had a copy that is now floating through the ranks of Clean Line opposition, but it tells the story of a farmers v. power company transmission battle in the 1970s. The farmers figured out how to remove just 6 bolts to topple new transmission towers... and then the project was plagued with an infestation of "bolt weevils." Also, insulators made great target practice. As fast as they were installed, they were then "uninstalled." Not that I'm suggesting any of this vandalism, but it just goes to show how completely vulnerable long distance transmission really is when compared to local, distributed generation.

As our Captain points out in admirably sarcastic fashion, any real security measures aren't practical.

Matthew

6/9/2014 02:56:05 am

Keryn, I haven't read it. You'd think that a company like Clean Line would take care not to upset the very people who could destroy the project if it were ever built, but they've acted in just the opposite fashion, blindsiding, ignoring, dismissing and disrespecting property owners at every turn. I'm not suggesting this type of vandalism either, as Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right, but how shortsighted and arrogant for Clean Line and its investor(s) to not realize the opportunity would be there. That is if Mother Nature doesn't take care of it first.

Keryn

6/9/2014 03:03:46 am

Yeah... Mother Nature. She probably doesn't respect energy system vandalism laws. What a bitch! ;-)

Why Long Distance Transmission is Not Reliable

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Why Long Distance Transmission is Not Reliable

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StopPATH Blog

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