okay, maybe i am a stupid kid who is blinded by the words of his professors.....

[Robert871]

but seriously? i am hearing people saying that PSO us going to start rolling blackouts, and the water company is going to start shutting off service to let the pumps cool..... .. . . . really?

am i the last person alive that thinks this is ********? we PAY for these services, if your **** cannot keep up with demand its time to GROW and meet the demand, augmenting your prices as required. not say oh well, you shouldn't use this much so we are cutting you back.

this is ******** and its a diversion from capitalism, just because these industries have no real competition, and they are buddy buddy with the govt they think they can just play ball however they want, and say **** the customers.

this country needs to get back off its arse and realize what made it great and get back to it! cut the ********!

:finger:


awwh that feels better. later guys!

 

[BadgeBunny]

I dunno ... Mayor Mick was on TV this morning saying all was well with Oklahoma City's water supply ... but to remember there is a even-odd restriction in place ... NOT because we don't have the water, mind you ... it's just hard for the City to keep up with demand and pressure gets low at times ...

 

[SMS]

Unfortunately the utility companies can't "grow to meet the demand" due to restrictive government regulations.

Anyone remember Obama's pledge to bankrupt anyone who wants to open a new coal fired plant?

 

[vdub]

The capacity cup runth empty!!!! Not sure where you got your views on how the power system works. When demand exceeds generation, something has to get turned off or the whole system can/will collapse. From what I have heard and I have not seen made public so I won't talk about the details, there are a few other issues besides "their system cannot keep up". Sometimes things break or unexpected things happen that force companies to take a more aggressive approach to make sure things don't get worse. So unless you want to sit around and the whole city be in a blackout, I would do what they asked and try to reduce your demand on the system. It is not like they have loads of capacity and just decided not to use it.

I bet if they build out the system to cover almost every possible contingency, then you would be here complaining about the price because transmission and generation are two things that do not come at cheap prices. As for the water system, I cannot help you there as I have not heard anything.

 

[RidgeHunter]

Video related to the OP:

http://comedians.jokes.com/louis-c-k-/videos/uncensored---louis-c-k----white-people-problems

 

[HMFIC]

It's all scare tactics. I say we call their bluff.

I'm leaving the windows open, the water running and all the lights on overnight.

 

[338Shooter]

[Broken External Image]

 

[338Shooter]

but seriously? i am hearing people saying that PSO us going to start rolling blackouts, and the water company is going to start shutting off service to let the pumps cool..... .. . . . really?

am i the last person alive that thinks this is ********? we PAY for these services, if your **** cannot keep up with demand its time to GROW and meet the demand, augmenting your prices as required. not say oh well, you shouldn't use this much so we are cutting you back.

this is ******** and its a diversion from capitalism, just because these industries have no real competition, and they are buddy buddy with the govt they think they can just play ball however they want, and say **** the customers.

this country needs to get back off its arse and realize what made it great and get back to it! cut the ********!

:finger:


awwh that feels better. later guys!

I don't know about the water co, but your understanding of the power system is, well, a hair off.

I think it is funny you mentioned capitalism. Electric utilities in most of the country are very big organizations. This is very beneficial to the customer. Power systems are very costly to build and maintain. If we had a bunch of little guys running little power companies for the competition you long for so much, we'd all be broke paying extremely high electric bills. The larger the scale in a power company the more cost effective it is. But, with these large companies with basically a necessary monopoly the people rely on the government to oversee and regulate them so they don't hold that power over your head. Now, with any government arm, comes the heavy grease on the cogs of industry. Everything slows down, and has more friction. It is just the nature of the beast (you elect these people).

If a power company needs or wants to build new infrastructure AND pass the costs onto the rate payers (like any other company does that is capitalism) they first must get it approved by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (In OK anyway, and again, you elect these people). This is a long drawn out process because as we all know, the government in any shape or form is trash and makes things suck, big time. If the commission doesn't think the rate increase is justified, it doesn't happen. Then the companies can't get recovery for infrastructure investment so it is pretty clear that they don't make the investments (yay capitalism!).

Now we get to the summer from hell and the demand goes through the roof. Looks like capacity is going to be eclipsed by demand and the commission (whom you elected) didn't let us increase rates to build more capacity. If the system is overloaded, the voltage sags and frequency will drop below 60Hz. If the power company drops voltage and frequency, they will be disconnected PDQ from the grid, and along with damage to sensitive equipment stuff starts tripping off and soon you have lots of people without power (lots of capacity available then right?). To combat this, power companies will start asking large customers to not use power. Once all of those avenues are exhausted they have to do something. They start shedding load via rolling blackouts. Turn people off for a little bit, then turn 'em back on and someone else off for a little bit, etc... This really sucks I know. But, it is either sit in the dark for a little while while your neighbor (figurative, not your actual neighbor) has lights, or have everyone in an large region of the country sit in the dark while they sort out the problems. *LINK*

Rolling blackouts suck for everyone, but they are better than the alternative.

Now, here is a good chance for you to become more active in the power system dance. Read your power companies website. They will probably be talking about their needs and cases they have before the commission. If you see something you want to support contact the OCC and let them know. Go to public commission meetings. And most importantly, if you see one or more of the commissioner meetings not meeting what you think are the needs of the area you live in, vote their butts out!

Your power company is not trying to ramrod you as much as your professors would like you to believe the evil giant corporation man is out to get you.

 

[Robert871]

thank you dustin for your knowledgeable reply.

i had written a large post and screwed up and closed the screen on my keyboard and lost the whole post, so i am not going to say everything i was going to.

i admit me saying that these industries being buddy buddy with the government, was an incorrect statement and i retract it.

but i stick to the idea that capitalism is not at work here. when the government dictates what types of system the company can build and cannot build, or where it can obtain its consumable materials without allowing a public decision; its not a capitalistic system anymore. especially when the infrastructure is not powerful enough to meet the current highest possible demands, and the demand will only continue to rise with time.

I will also give you that we are responsible for the blame we place on our leaders because they are there because we either voted them there, or failed to vote against them; but i do not actually believe we have the power to really change how our government operates. lets be honest, the way our governing system is setup currently, its well beyond the work load of two full time jobs just to keep up with what our leaders are doing on the local and federal levels, and that does not include the efforts it would take for a person to take action in affecting how things turn out. the system no longer works for us, we are enslaved by it, its simply impossible for us to control; its simply far to complex, spread out, and constantly heading in the wrong direction, its not designed for anyone with a job and family to be able to keep up with and make an educated decision and vote or press their decision to the government. and whats even more sad is the amount of people who have given up and are welcome to living as a slave to the government by accepting its social aid in return for their vote..

but this is only tied to the current topic because this uncontrollable government is hindering the private industry's ability to provide a paid service to its customers, a service that is highly and commonly demanded by all; and that is not capitalistic.

the people that oppose capitalism commonly use the pictures of the old days when the robber baron companies enslaved its workers and customers to work and buy from them, paying them horrible wages and making them work in horrible environments; which is true, capitalism had its issues, and we relied on the government to iron them our and insure us a safe, and well paying work place; but they have taken it too far and are now pressing their thumb too heavily upon both small and large business alike.

i do not believe the idea that the large companies are out to get us is true either. in fact i think its just the opposite; the large companies want us to thrive because when the consumer is happy and has excess income, they can and will buy the companies products and services. when we suffer so does their bottom line.

all i was trying to say is i feel if the government would back off, and let the private system do its job, we would end up with a stronger more reliable infrastructure. and on top of that the country would grow and prosper as a nation of hard working people who value success by hard work, intelligence, and positive choices.

but instead, we get fear of rolling blackouts, water restrictions, higher food prices, 20 percent of our paychecks gone before we even get them, and another nearly 10 percent when we go to spend them; and everyone is pissed off all the time about everything. my point is its the deviation form our capitalistic ways, that is to blame for the majority of our problems, and we have our increasingly difficult to control government to blame.

 

[vdub]

Another aspect that comes into play with transmission is that PSO/AEP, OGE, and other utilites in Oklahoma belong to the Southwest Power Pool (SPP). What SPP does is transmission planning out as far as 11 years in the future for all member's transmission systems as a whole. So a lot of the transmission projects that are constructed on a regular basis are actually designated and specified by SPP. Good thing for utilities is the cost sharing between members based on a number of variables as all projects are usually mutually beneficial to all members. There are a few projects that are not designated by SPP and costs not shared among members but those are usually smaller projects and typically deal with older tranmission level voltages.

All of what Dustin said is how the system works and what will happen if demand > generation. Once PSO works out the issues that they are currently experiencing, there system should be more than capable to keep the system up and functional. What you should be most worried about is if they don't get the issues worked out before schools get back in session. With that amount of load coming on the system during peak demand, it might get dicey and rolling blackouts could become a reality.