Grid Down, this is not a drill.

[arakboss]

Or perhaps reaching capacity of intended use

Build, build, build until....

One of power company guys that hangs out here on the forum, said the buried lines have a working lifespan and that electric companies have been putting off replacing many of them.

 

[USMC1911]

Not counting today, we've had FOUR power outages. Yesterday it was two in about an hour and a half. The two days before that it was one each day, in the mid morning.
I wouldn't call it "Grid Down" seeing as it's just something between us and our local distribution set-up. About 15 blocks away. I called and talked to a very nice guy that went through reports of outages lately. A couple in the last two weeks mentioned a "Cut-Out". Sounds like something like a breaker. Doesn't mean I'm not worried about power going out during a real hot spell. This city/state, I don't believe, has kept up with maintenance on important utilities for the tax/bill payers. But we always have the fact that potland is the #1 city in the nation for bicyclists!

A cut out is generally a fuse that is above a transformer.

 

[arakboss]

Amazingly our power is still on.

Over 30K without power across Oregon after high winds

Tens of thousands of people across Oregon are without power Thursday morning as high winds hit the state.

www.koin.com

 

[arakboss]

Go figure, after I bought all that chicken which is in our freezer the power is out, again. Grrrrrr!

 

[arakboss]

Homes across the street have power, it appears 496 of our neighbors don't.

 

[arakboss]

And our power is out again.

Edit: lesson learned from this outage is, charge your batteries after use in previous outage. Hopefully this one doesn't last long, we added about 30lbs worth of meat to freezer over the weekend. Grrrrrr!

 

[Richo877]

We have tons of rechargeable batteries and a convertor in the van to plug in and charge whatever small devices we need. We can cook over a sterno can if necessary. All the cold goods are crammed in the freezer on ice. No generator, so won't be doing anything with too much power. Might crack open a case of MREs after we get through the perishables and see if they're any good. Maybe it's time to rotate stock anyway. Comms signals are shotty at best. I just want to say, this has been the most disappointing apocalypse to my expectation. Cheers to hoping it gets more exciting

 

[Richo877]

We're back on here for now.

 

[arakboss]

We have tons of rechargeable batteries and a convertor in the van to plug in and charge whatever small devices we need. We can cook over a sterno can if necessary. All the cold goods are crammed in the freezer on ice. No generator, so won't be doing anything with too much power. Might crack open a case of MREs after we get through the perishables and see if they're any good. Maybe it's time to rotate stock anyway. Comms signals are shotty at best. I just want to say, this has been the most disappointing apocalypse to my expectation. Cheers to hoping it gets more exciting

I brought some batteries into work to charge up. It looks like half the town is out on both sides of I5. From Wilsonville Road all the way up to around Camping World was dark. Wife said it could be late afternoon today before everybody in Wilsonville has power restored. I taped the fridge and freezers shut, hopefully bonus son doesn't open them.

 

[The Heretic]

And our power is out again.

Mine went down about 7PM due to wind. Still not back up. I assume there is a power line/pole down for us as last night they said it wouldn't be restored until 10 AM this morning.

This is the 3rd or 4th outage I have had this winter - pretty common. Right now I am running on batteries for small things like the wifi/etc.

I put a water bottle in the fridge freezer last night after the outage started and it was frozen this morning. I think the refrigerator is at 41*

Still a bit windy.

Edit: lesson learned from this outage is, charge your batteries after use in previous outage. Hopefully this one doesn't last long, we added about 30lbs worth of meat to freezer over the weekend. Grrrrrr!

Should be fine. Stuff in my chest freezer stays frozen for days when the power goes out. I put expensive sensitive stuff like meat/fish in a styrofoam box in the freezer, and I have gallon jugs of water in the bottom for thermal mass.

 

[arakboss]

Mine went down about 7PM due to wind. Still not back up. I assume there is a power line/pole down for us as last night they said it wouldn't be restored until 10 AM this morning.

This is the 3rd or 4th outage I have had this winter - pretty common. Right now I am running on batteries for small things like the wifi/etc.

I put a water bottle in the fridge freezer last night after the outage started and it was frozen this morning. I think the refrigerator is at 41*

Still a bit windy.


Should be fine. Stuff in my chest freezer stays frozen for days when the power goes out. I put expensive sensitive stuff like meat/fish in a styrofoam box in the freezer, and I have gallon jugs of water in the bottom for thermal mass.

Our power came back on around 2am.

 

[The Heretic]

BTW - I am glad I went to the TMHI - the router/etc. only pulls about 5-6 watts and runs fine on the little 256wh power station I have. Given the extent of the outage, I suspect PGE might take longer than they predicted last night to restore my power.

the new neighbors are probably getting a good lesson in being prepared for power outages this winter.

 

[Provincial]

We lost power last night about 9 PM. The lights flickered for about 10 seconds, then went out. The TV was tuned to Youtube and it kept operating. I assumed that the Uninterruptable Power Supplies that I use to control voltage spikes kept it running, so I shut it down. Pretty quickly, I discovered that some 120V circuits were still powered up, and restarted the TV and continued watching the Youtube video. I was able to plug our two refrigerators and a freezer into working outlets by using extension cords. We have wood heat and gravity water, so we rode out this one easily.

We have three-phase power, as I need it for equipment in the shop. I believe that only two of the "hot" lines were damaged, and the remaining one fed the circuits that still worked. These outlets kept operating until about 6 AM this morning, when I suspect the linemen showed up to start the repairs.

The top had broken out of a very large Douglas Fir tree, blocked the County Road and damaged the power lines. The power didn't come back on until around Noon.

It had been very windy, and there was a lot of debris on the road this morning. The garbage man was about four hours late, but was running his route.

 

[The Heretic]

BTW - I am glad I went to the TMHI - the router/etc. only pulls about 5-6 watts and runs fine on the little 256wh power station I have. Given the extent of the outage, I suspect PGE might take longer than they predicted last night to restore my power.

the new neighbors are probably getting a good lesson in being prepared for power outages this winter.

I tried to use the power station to charge my laptop. Didn't last long pulling 70 watts.

PGE says my power won't be restored until 8 PM so I am now running my genset to recharge my fridge, laptop and phone. Fridge got up to 43*, back down to 38* quickly.

 

[The Heretic]

Oregon Power Outages Map, Feb 2025

poweroutage.us

Washington Power Outages Map, Feb 2025

poweroutage.us

 

[The Heretic]

Thank you linemen/power restoration crew/PGE/et. al. for doing a dangerous job tirelessly thru the 24/7 to restore our power.

 

[arakboss]

And the power is out again. PGE is really starting to suck around here.

 

[Aught Six]

Just another drunk or high rioter hitting a power pole

 

[arakboss]

Just another drunk or high rioter hitting a power pole

Don't know but it's back up. It's a common occurrence around our neighborhood. My belief is it's related to old lines and or equipment?

 

[The Heretic]

Don't know but it's back up. It's a common occurrence around our neighborhood. My belief is it's related to old lines and or equipment?

Could be a blown transformer. Where I lived in Everett, WA, we had crows that would sit on the power pole, which had a transformer. Every couple of years one would sit on the transformer and get fried, blowing the transformer. Power would go out.