Don't move to California.  PG&E has made a real mess of things here.

Just had an 11 day power outage here beginning at noon on August 10th and lasting until late evening on August 21st.  Cable internet took an additional week to repair and some nearby neighbors are still without cable and internet.

11 days without power is really enough to try your last nerve.  We were all cutting up tree debris day after day so I tell people it felt like a bad camping trip.

thru Thursday morning due to the Red Flag warning for wildfire because of the excessive heat, high winds and extremely dry condition of the terrain.  Last night the power was turned off for over 18,000 Sonoma county residents, and the cutoff for the shutoffs was just about 3 miles north of us.

I’ve got our freezer packed with ice in case I have to put everything perishable into an ice chest.  Since the pandemic I’ve only been grocery shopping once a week on Wednesday morning.  Anticipating the fire season I’ve been using all the frozen meat and vegetables.  Tomorrow, I’m only going to buy what we can use in a week.

We are going to live with the threat of wildfires and power outages every Summer and Fall for the foreseeable future.

Eddie

DITTO!  I never thought of it either.  We just sit and wait for it to come back and usually it's so fast that we wouldn't get all these things done before it came back on and we'd be reversing it all.

We've been in this house about 2 1/2 years and I think the power has gone off once.  The last house was 13 years and I don't think the power went out more than a few times.  The only thing I did on one occasion was try to open the garage door which I was unable to do.  I didn't know we had an issue with the door spring and the door was too heavy to open.  When we moved into this house we had the openers replaced with those that have a battery backup but I think it was a waste of money because we haven't had to use it.

The whole house generators are a scarcity around here.  You mostly see them where there is a medical need for consistent power.

These horror stories really scare me. In the almost 20 years  I've lived here, I've only had the power go off twice. Once when a vehicle hit a major power pole (utilities are underground in my area) and once when a small junction box near the sidewalk started smoking. Edison has turned the power off a couple of times for a few hours for maintenance but they let you know weeks in advance. Other than that service has been very good. I go ballistic when the cable and internet go out. I'd need to be tranquilized if the power went off during a super-heat wave like we're having now. I'm going to finally have solar installed in the fall/winter, but of course if the regular power goes out your solar goes with it. My house is one of the last in the neighborhood to be solar-less. People are starting to talk.

Ralph...that's sad to hear about PG&E. When I was growing up in SJ they were the envy of utility companies everywhere, well managed with very reasonable rates. Almost all of the electric power generated was hydroelectric. The more electricity you used the lower your rate was. See how that would fly today anywhere. What happened is too many people...way too many.

Even though I get a 30% discount on my electric and gas (negligible even in winter) I got the highest electric bill ever last month. Every day except 3 were above average for August and 3 records were set. On Sunday it was 121 degrees in Woodland Hills. This was the highest temperature ever recorded in all of Los Angeles County...ever! The weather...it's a changin. Something's blowing in the wind. Today it happens to be wild-fire smoke.

Last Oct. we had our power shut off for 4 and 1/2 days, because PG&E doesn’t maintain their power lines in a manner that would prevent them from coming down in high winds and starting fires.  So, to avoid yet another lawsuit settlement for their negligence in maintaining their equipment, the customer just has to bite the bullet and suffer without power.  

The last time before this shutoff that I was without electricity for so long was in Dec. ‘64 when my family was without power for 6 days when it rained biblically for seven days and seven nights non stop, and the Russian River had a record breaking flood.

PG&E should be spending more of their profits on the maintenance of their equipment instead of paying it out in dividends and then going to the CPUC begging for rate increases expecting the customers to pay for maintaining their equipment.  These are tax deductible business expenses.

Eddie

Yes, PG&E hasn’t paid a dividend since 2017, because thats when the excrement hit the fan due to the Tubbs Fire that began from a PG&E power line falling.    The resultant lawsuits and bankruptcy have prevented any dividends since then. BTW, the Kincaid Fire of last Oct. also began from another fallen PG&E power line, they just don’t learn or they just don’t care.

 However, had they been properly maintaining their lines and equipment prior to this terrible fire (Tubbs Fire of 2017) that happened 10 miles from my home theres a good chance thousands of people wouldn’t have lost their homes and many wouldn’t have lost their lives.

PG&E has been in “bed” with the CPUC for as long as I can remember and I’ve been paying PG&E since 1970.  Anytime PG&E makes a request for a rate increase its a done deal before the ink is even dry.  The CPUC puts a rubber stamp of approval on anything PG&E wants, the customer be damned.   I have zero sympathy of this company or its shareholders.

Now every late summer and fall we in Northern California have to sweat it out as to whether or not we will have electricity that we can depend upon.  Should I buy groceries or not?  Because who knows if I’ll be able to keep them from spoiling.

 It’s not like they are providing our power for free, we pay fairly high rates, and they keep going up all the time so we can pay for their equipment maintenance and replacement, which in my book is the responsibility of of the provider, not the rate payer.  

As I type this post I don’t know whether or not I’ll have power tonight or tomorrow because we are currently on notice that there is a potential  of Public Safety Power Shutoffs.

Eddie

We haven't had a power failure since August 14th, 2003. The great Northeast Blackout. When we had that power failure the first thing I did was fill the bathtub, buckets and virtually every pot with water. Beyond the 7th floor, we loose water since the pumps fail. We're supposed to get emergency generators to power the water pumps, elevators and common area lights. No generator yet, and I'm not holding my breath. However the common area lights have batteries, enough for them to work for 5 hours. On particularly hot days, when power demand is high, we sometimes get a reduction of voltage. Other than the lights being slightly dimmer, everything else seems to work fine.

Seems like the gas problem here has gotten worse over the past few years. Such as having to replace carbs on small garden engines.