Re: California hits stage 3 power emergency

[Sean Donelan <sean () donelan com>]

On Wed, 17 January 2001, Matt Clauson wrote:
> PG&E started with "block 3" (look on your power bill for what block number
> you are) -- assuming 1 hour per blackout, and they go through the block
> numbers in sequence, you have an idea of when you'll get hit.  Anyone have
> an idea of how many PG&E blocks there are?


PG&E has divided its service area into 14 blocks of 550 megawatts.  Other
utility companies, such as City of Palo Alto ( http://www.cpau.com ), have
their own blocks.

If you share a circuit with a "critical action" (i.e. hospital, fire station)
you will not have a rolling blackout code.  The utility avoids interrupting
service to those facilities.  However, they may still experience an uncontrolled
blackout if the grid fails.




All Internet facilities in California, which I checked, appear to be operating
normally.  Calling around, some folks are or have been on emergency generator
power, but this has not affected customer service so far.