Posted on 04/02/2020 4:52:29 AM PDT by foreverfree
For those wondering about staffing of power plants during the crisis.
I tried to post Oberhaus's article from Wired from 3/24 but Wired has a copyright complaint (at least against FR).
ff
I work for the primary provider in KY. We’re fine. Our problem is not supplying power. It’s getting paid. Large customers are closing plants and regular customers can stop paying their bill and we can’t cut off their power.
However, I’ll probably get furloughed in the next week or three because I work on new projects, and virtually all of them are “non-essential” improvements. i.e. thy can be put on hold for a month or a year. I expect that to start up any day.
Add to that the fact that I’m a contractor and, well, you know. The good news is that I almost retired in january and, truth be told, I’m there just trying to finish up paying off my house before I quit. If that is moved up a month or three, meh.
But the folks responsible for actually supplying power will continue unabated.
Once this thing is over, though, things are going to be interesting, financially. And I think that is why we are headed for Great Depression II. It’s already been baked in.
It’s already been baked in ...
By Democrat design.
Wouldn’t you agree the grid will be ok if we don’t get hit by a large storm, quake, or fire?
routine maintenance and new construction can be put on hold.
So long as the natural gas, coal, and other sources of energy are supplied, the grid will continue to run.
Some utilities are keeping their vital workers on-site and only allowing them to work with 2 man crews for maintenance/construction.
Oh goodie, now we can sit in the dark in our house and chew crackers and get arrested if we go out. LOL
The 21st Century is not turning out the way I thought. It's more "Ready Player One" than "2001 A Space Odyssey".
I’m surprised to hear that your Industrials are closing plants. The ones around me are ramping up production (food, textiles, household goods, paper etc.).
Even some metal fab/polymer plants are changing their lines to meet demand for medical and military equipment.
I work in probably the exact role you do and from what I’ve seen on my existing projects, they are trying to move forward as fast as possible and finish before the impact of the virus really hits (I’m praying it goes away - wishful thinking).
Actually, one of my projects was directly related to maintenance. Fact is, there are federal requirements involved here. There is a maintenance window that must be adhered to for things like looking for rust, connection integrity, etc.
But sometimes you can wait until the end of that window, so there is some leeway. But this is really ongoing stuff. I here they are always painting the Golden gate bridge. That is, they start at one end and work their way to the other, and when they are done, they start at the other end again.
Whether that’s true or not, that gives a picture of what “maintenance” really is. It’s ongoing.
And I would expect no difference in response to storm events.
I’ll tell you what would really have an impact. Just imagine the Internet going down.
bkmk
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