# California residents: how many power failures so far this season? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 24, 2006, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-residents-how-many-power-failures-so-far-this-season/358103 "2006-05-24T23:59:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Orbifold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Orbifold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orbifold)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-residents-how-many-power-failures-so-far-this-season/358103/1 "2006-05-24T23:59:33Z")
It’s that time of year again. Hot weather has been around for a few weeks already, and we all know what that means in (most of) California: brownouts, blackouts, and rolling electricity shortages, oh my! The electricity in these parts just started getting flaky this week, but boy it’s off to a roaring start: I’ve witnessed three brownouts and two outright power failures already. How about you? ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-residents-how-many-power-failures-so-far-this-season/358103/2 "2006-05-25T00:06:47Z")
I’ve had 0. (North LA county). ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-residents-how-many-power-failures-so-far-this-season/358103/3 "2006-05-25T00:33:16Z")
None in the Bay Area. Why should we have any - Enron is kaput. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-residents-how-many-power-failures-so-far-this-season/358103/4 "2006-05-25T00:47:34Z")
Ours flickered at home around 2pm today. Just enough to shut down the computer and screw up the clocks. Tivo and the microwave rebooted and all was well. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-residents-how-many-power-failures-so-far-this-season/358103/5 "2006-05-25T01:55:44Z")
None in Santa Barbara. I don’t believe we ever had a rolling blackout here. I was up in Lompoc a couple of years ago during one. I was eating lunch in a Mexican place. Luckily they cook with glass so I had a very nice day time candlelit lunch. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-residents-how-many-power-failures-so-far-this-season/358103/6 "2006-05-25T02:30:00Z")
We had a storm-caused outage back in March. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-residents-how-many-power-failures-so-far-this-season/358103/7 "2006-05-25T03:43:35Z")
None (So. OC). Don’t really remember having a whole lot last summer. To be honest, I can’t remember the last one. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-residents-how-many-power-failures-so-far-this-season/358103/8 "2006-05-25T03:52:23Z")
We had 'em back when I lived in Sacramento, but where I live now, not a one. During bad winter weather we might have some outages here and there, but summer is fine. Of course, we never have warm weather and most people don’t have air conditioners. In Monterey? Ha! I want cold air, I open a window. I run my _heat_ in August. ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-residents-how-many-power-failures-so-far-this-season/358103/9 "2006-05-25T07:05:09Z")
The power has flickered on and off a few times in the last few months. Other than that? Nothing unexpected. A local power plant blew up and left the majority of the city without power. ---
**Author:** ![Cowgirl\_Jules](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@Cowgirl\_Jules](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cowgirl_Jules)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-residents-how-many-power-failures-so-far-this-season/358103/10 "2006-05-25T13:59:08Z")
My power was off this morning. I woke up just a little late, but since I couldn’t dry my hair, it was a wash. And since it was flickering last night, I don’t really think it was a car vs. pole thing as it usually is in my neighborhood. I don’t expect rolling blackouts until the weather gets much warmer though. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-residents-how-many-power-failures-so-far-this-season/358103/11 "2006-05-25T15:57:53Z")
San Fernando Valley, none here. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-residents-how-many-power-failures-so-far-this-season/358103/12 "2006-05-25T16:29:21Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > None in Santa Barbara. Two hours after I wrote this we had a power outage. Serves me right. It was due to an equipment failure though and only lasted about ten minutes. ---
**Author:** ![sunacres](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@sunacres](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunacres)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-residents-how-many-power-failures-so-far-this-season/358103/13 "2006-05-25T16:40:52Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > None in the Bay Area. Why should we have any - Enron is kaput. You posted this 6 hours after my power in Berkeley (and 29,000 other PG&E customers apparently) got restored after being out for 18 hours. Nothing to do with any AC loads, they still don’t know what caused it. We usually only have problems during winter storms, this one is a mystery. ---
**Author:** ![Landshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/77aa72/32.png) [@Landshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Landshark)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2006, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-residents-how-many-power-failures-so-far-this-season/358103/14 "2006-05-26T01:04:29Z")
None in San Diego I’ve been aware of. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2006, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-residents-how-many-power-failures-so-far-this-season/358103/15 "2006-05-26T03:32:00Z")
I know there’ve been a few in San Francisco, and like half the East Bay went dark last night, but I don’t think there were any shenanigans. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2006, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-residents-how-many-power-failures-so-far-this-season/358103/16 "2006-05-26T05:16:26Z")
We don’t get a lot of that up here. None so far this year. I live north of Sacramento; it’s plenty hot. Only not right now. ---
**Author:** ![hawksgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ed655f/32.png) [@hawksgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawksgirl)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2006, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-residents-how-many-power-failures-so-far-this-season/358103/17 "2006-05-26T05:21:03Z")
None around Sacramento, in fact I don’t remember any last year either. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2006, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-residents-how-many-power-failures-so-far-this-season/358103/18 "2006-05-26T07:14:22Z")
> [@Orbifold](#): > > It’s that time of year again. Hot weather has been around for a few weeks already, and we all know what that means in (most of) California: brownouts, blackouts, and rolling electricity shortages, oh my! As others have implied, those were artificially created problems. > [@Orbifold](#): > > The electricity in these parts just started getting flaky this week, but boy it’s off to a roaring start: I’ve witnessed three brownouts and two outright power failures already. How about you? I’m out in the country near Napa; no power problems since it warmed up. 2 outages a few hours long over the winter, and several outages a few minutes long. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2006, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-residents-how-many-power-failures-so-far-this-season/358103/19 "2006-05-26T17:29:21Z")
None at home (San Gabriel Valley) or at work (downtown LA) so far. Although this thread reminds me of all the fun we had when the power went out in downtown last year due to (as I recall) human error trying to reroute transmission lines. Even when the power came back on, nobody got any work done the rest of the day. It was just so odd.