It is apparent we have exceeded the Pacific Gas & Electric Company’s ability to supply its customers adequately or fairly. It is also equally apparent that the time has come for us to sever the utility’s hold over us and to explore new ways of sourcing power and light in our homes.
PG&E’s recent actions to “keep us safe” recently shows just how poorly the company has managed the design and management of its power grids over the years.
We have found it outrageous and unacceptable that a company’s solution to preventing fires during critical fire periods is to shut off power to hundreds of thousands of users. This “we had to darken the village in order to save it approach” may have actually put medically dependent people in jeopardy and others at risk, possibly STARTING a fire in Moraga as users turned to gas powered generators to power their homes.
Our current status quo forces citizens to stay in a potentially toxic relationship with a power provider which has shown it can manipulate its costs and turn out our lights when it suits them.
As additional, forced power outages appear to be in our future I believe the time has come for us to explore new and better ways to move thousands of willing users “off grid.” As technology improves, making it easier to cut our ties with the power company, I would ask that local government offer incentives to help make this happen.
People are demanding that PG&E do its job or face the possibility of having their monopoly broken up, something I believe would pave the way for individuals and communities to come up with new and innovative ways to get the power we need and deserve.
Deborah Wasserman/San Ramon
PG&E is darned if you do, and darned if you don’t. My elderly mom (in Sanders Ranch) is one of those “medically dependent” residents. We knew the power outages were coming, and we know that fires can start. We got her out of her home (prior to the outages) and safely into a home (outside the outage area). Sometimes you have to take responsibility for your own life, make responsible decisions for those you love, and keep an even keel.
We choose not to have a toxic relationship with PG&E, we choose not to go solar (it wouldn’t benefit us) and life goes on, including life with PG&E as our provider. We don’t live in a perfect world, and these things happen.
Thank you (again) to all the agencies in Moraga who safely took care of our community. And thank you to the residents of Moraga who took care of each other.
The State should buy and maintain the grid just like it does the roads (imperfect but this is the purpose for having government at all really) and let individual companies compete to sell us power thru the grid. Can’t be much worse if you ask me!
Weather causes problems with power lines all over the country. Not much we can do about high level winds whipping out transmission lines. Go buy a generator and be prepared. Most of the rest of the country has power issues based on their weather patterns. Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Northeasterns. Ice Storms. Snow Storms. People around the country are laughing at us whining about the power outages. I grew up in western Canada in the Rocky Mountains. We had power outages due to snow storms breaking power lines. We had generators. We had full pantries. And we had nice warm blankets. Cause we were snowed in for days and it was 20 degrees below zero! Bit of a shock for a California girl. Not once have I ever heard people complain. It’s life. Adapt and carry on.
Our second home is completely off grid and ready for us when things finally get too bad for us to handle down here. I never liked being subject to the whim of one person or corporation — they take advantage and have.
I find the panic and drama a bit over the top. Yes medical needs can pose a serious problem!! But today there are solutions for many of those worst case you know the person needs to be relocated beforehand etc.
It wasn’t long ago that my wife and I spent Christmas in SF without power for 4 days. It was a non event people went on with their life just had to pay more attention to what you were doing.
If anything these scheduled outages is a reality check for what people need to consider if and or when a major natural disaster might happen.
If not being able to turn on lights and live your live uninterrupted is a really really big problem there are big expensive solutions you can buy. LOL
If you can handle some minor inconveniences for a while there are very cheap simple solutions you can have at tge ready.
I don’t think this attitude/drama is a PG&E thing I think its a we’re spoiled and rarely ever experience natural disasters thing. And how dare my life be interrupted!!!
Yes businesses need help finding ways to keep the doors open but the typical home owners need to do their research and pick the solutions that work best for their wants or needs. My ice chest, led lanterns, bbq, camp stove and cheap solar generator ie battery in a box woth solar panel worked just fine.
Morning, CDude. We agree, having believed outages were inevitable and planning for them for some time. The loss of Internet threw us, though, and we’re working on that one. Other than that it was a piece of cake though we scared our neighbors with our Blackout Getup. https://news24-680.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Blackout-1-e1571854335891.jpg