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More than 5,000 customers lose power in SLO, Atascadero and Templeton

August 15, 2019

A power outage in San Luis Obispo and one in North County resulted in more than 5,000 customers losing power on Wednesday.

An incident involving a power line sparked a fire in the area of Johnson and Flora streets in San Luis Obispo, according to the city’s fire department. Firefighters arrived at the scene and extinguished the blaze.

KSBY reports, shortly before 4:30 p.m., a transformer possibly blew in SLO, and residents reported hearing a large pop before the power went out. A tree then caught on fire in the area of Sydney Street and Johnson Avenue.

Residents attempted to put out the blaze using fire extinguishers before firefighters arrived.

As a result of the outage, 2,325 customers lost power. The outage affected various parts of the city, including in the downtown area along Monterey Street and around Mitchell Park, SLO High School and French Hospital Medical Center.

The crash shortly before 4 p.m. spurred an outage in North County which resulted in nearly 3,000 customers losing power in Atascadero and Templeton. The causes of both outages remain under investigation.


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For those unclear on the concept: Solar on individual homes would mean the power lines would disappear and incidents like this would never happen. Neither would blackouts of any kind. Just a clarification for anyone lacking the imagination as to how that would work.


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Clarification? You are ignorant regarding the typical residential solar system. If the power lines disappear that would mean either they under grounded, which costs millions, or they simply dont exist anymore. Progressive? perhaps? Most homes with solar, unless “off the grid” ,utilize solar only to supplement the utility power during peak sun times. If the “leaders”of SLO force electric utilities on everyone, there will be further costs to home owners as amp output goes up again raising costs significantly as not all systems have the same output. Dark periods, think days of june gloom fog and you’ll have 0 electricity for days or weeks possibly. The general lack of sun will require battery banks for storage, fact. That alone is thousands more and dependent on amp needs you may not have full power abilities at night for cooking, heaters, electric stoves, etc. I dont know where you get some of your ideas from but their steering you off course something awful.


1

You are the one who is unclear on the concept. Plenty of homes are on solar and the lines are still there, it’s called grid tied solar and no one is pulling down the power lines to homes.


Also if you do solar with out the grid it’s about 5-8 x expensive because of all the gear/ batteries etc you need to be your own power company.


Blackouts will always happen because parts fail.


1

You can have a power wall be self contained, and still make money off your surplus, did you know this? So are motor homes bad for being self contained, or am I a snowflake for wanting to be self sufficient? A gas generator vs solar panels, and generators hook up to deep cell usually. What lasts longer. Genis only run for so many hours, with exhausting maintenance.


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A single powerwall only does 20A for a few hours when off grid, so one back up circuit, every thing else goes dark. Did you know this?


In California the difference between peak and off peak power costs are so close that you will not make any money off of peak shaving because of the battery and install cost plus the limited life span of a battery pack that is cycling 2 x a day.


Being self sufficient is fine, falling for a advert?


-1

I’m so grateful, I see so many panels on homes more and more, agree with you completely. Power wall is 10 grand, and has 72 hours of total need reserve’ and you have solar panels!, theh last a decade at least. Why rely and pay taxes on failing infrastructure, politicians and greed and BIG gov, isn’t that Socialism? You can build a diy power wall for super cheap, youtube has many videos, as easy as soldering. I like to rely on myself, not the government or private companies for shoddy commodities. It’s odd how people here who decry big Gov endorse it so blindly. Bad guys use who’s stuff for their own wars etc? I don’t see isis/supremacist,/religious/corperations driving russia trucks; usually Hummers, and US or Russian guns. Drug cartels have Ars and M16, where from? Anyone here who can’t solder or know basic trades, I’ll teach for a beer. Diy, people do things without permits all the time, do you think zillow gives a rats but if you didn’t pay 10g in permitting but hired a professional? No, they dont. Why so many thumbs down?


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Easy fix, just install electric heaters and stoves. That will cure the problem.


4

Last night’s power outage from 1630 Wednesday to 0830 Thursday in Atascadero is a good demonstration of how wonderful things will be in SLO when the city’s leaders get their “electric power only” utopia.


12

This is a no-brainer. Make a database when people buy these mylar balloons. FIrefighters enter the information, PG&E sends the bill. Done.


8

Sounds like a regulatory police state to me.


Or if you feel that strong about Mylar balloons we could ban them. A much simpler regulatory fix.


Or… the free market will take care of itself. We, the planet, are running out of helium. Balloons will become too expensive soon enough.


0

Well, I expected the response about regulation. I’d prefer not to have a police state, either. But causing a widespread power outage over a balloon? Pretty dumb.


2

Mr Yan, thank you. But your trying to put out an oil fire with water here, I try it a lot, fuels the flame. But fires burn out eventually, ie, free market. But free market has already doomed us with enlightenment surrounding us. It’s a shame. Just like Galileo and Catholicism. Tesla and Edison.


-1

Aren’t you one of those outspoken persons on “less government”?

Just askin’…


-3

If you pay closer attention you’d see I am an equal opportunity offender ;-)


I usually rail against; inconsistency in someone’s arguments, conspiracy theorists, or racists. Sometimes the perfect storm arrives and delivers all 3 in a single commenter. Lucky day!


If look at my last comments more closely; you would have noted that I outlined 3 ways, of varying degree of government involvement, to solve the problem.


I stated my thoughts about the first option offered up by 1965buick, then offered a less intrusive government option for the 2nd, and lastly offered a free market solution for the 3rd option.


But I did not say which position I truly held. I simply laid out the logical choices as I saw them.


I do however own a Greenpeace protest boat made of Mylar and park it at my Mc Mansion. I hope that helps to peg me better.


1

Wrong “button”? Probably so…

My question/comment was directed at 1965buick, not you. Sorry for the confusion!


-1

My point proven above exactly. Why want big gov and failing infrastructure, and then say I’m conservative, oxymoronic. Take back our power!


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