With wildfire season already active the Bay Area, PG&E is hosting a wildfire safety open house Thursday night in Walnut Creek.
Utility representatives will be on-hand to talk about PG&E’s efforts to harden the grid with improved equipment and the expanded public safety power shutoff program, in which planned blackouts will occur during high winds.
Residents and others are welcome to drop by from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Camellia Room at The Gardens at Heather Farm at 1540 Marchbanks Drive.
For anyone unable to attend, PG&E is also offering free webinars online. More information about the webinars is available at https://bit.ly/2Jsnqfh.
100 year old transmission lines? They should discuss fire safety amongst themselves.
They pull stuff like this then pass out dividends, bonuses, raises, etc.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pacific-gas-and-electric-camp-fire-ignored-repairs-for-years-on-its-aging-power-lines-report-says/
Bonuses and Raises continue. Dividends to common stock holders stopped about a year ago… I don’t know about preferred stock holders’ dividends.
@WC – I believe the towers are 100 years old but that the lines get replaced every so often.
In this area I worry more about the train bridge that soars over Alhambra Avenue in Martinez. It was built in 1899 and reinforced in 1929. The deck at the top was rebuilt in 2003. Much of the main bridge is 120 years old with the reinforcements being 90 years old. Several hundred trains use this bridge every month.
In all sorts of weather, the bridge needs to go from no load to full load in seconds and then back to no load while also withstanding the vibration of the train. An electrical transmission tower supports with a static load with some shifting due rain and/or the wind. Ice storms cause more stress than usual and can cause towers to fail.
IMHO – the PG&E Executives should be holding the Open House so they can discuss with the people paying their salaries how the Executives at PG&E are making many millions a year while they have let their equipment turn into death traps?
https://www1.salary.com/PGandE-CORP-Executive-Salaries.html
To be followed later by a seminar on watching paint dry.
I drive for rideshare and last week I pick up the head guy (David-can’t remember his real name) hired by PG&E to inspect the lines in NOCAL to the Airport. David is an independent contractor and has 30 years experience as a lineman and inspector of electrical grids all over the nation. He told me that his crew of 36 members randomly inspected over 2000 poles, wires, transformers and coils last month in preparation of the work needed to be done and he said over 50% of the entire electrical system will need to be replaced. He stated that of all the years he has done this for other electrical companies no more than 15% would fail.
Worse PG&E stopped using union journey men about a year ago fearing that they would be price gouged and that most of that work completed failed because it was connected to another component that they were told not to replace on their work order or they did not do the job right. In addition because it failed his inspection those workers are not being paid and most refuse to come out again to fix it unless they get paid for their first attempt.
It is time that this company be converted to a non-profit as many other utilities have done nationwide since this company continues to put investors ahead of public safety over and over again.
FYI-The entire board has been replaced in the past year so everyone that was involved with this inadequate system of checks and balances have already moved on most likely out of California to avoid the future 3x-6x rate increases. The PUC that is suppose to protect us has also been found in a federal court to be not doing their job and allowing all of this to happen.
PG&E is a joke, and trying to come after customers for their incompetence is outrageous. I can’t wait for them to fall apart.
The event was well attended and filled the parking lot. I took a couple of photos and posted them to https://imgur.com/a/fQTxvW2 along with pictures of birds.
They had many poster boards set up. I have asked PG&E to put them on a web site so that they can be reviewed by people from home.
Great shots of those birds. Did you happen to see any of the turtles in the ponds? There are many and they are very large, too.
I love those bird pics too! Very nice WC Resident, thank you.
I once saw that arc through the arm and out the feet scenario actually happen to a guy. He was standing at what was supposed to be the proper distance (2′) from a large power supply unit that had been acting up. Unfortunately he reached his hand to point at a part, so his hand was within the no go zone. 20,000 volts jumped out to meet his hand and went through him to the linoleum and concrete floor leaving multiple holes and scorch marks in the concrete. No one could explain how he didn’t die. The soles of his shoes were welded to his feet. During the next couple of years I I worked there he was having pretty bad trouble with his back and his knees. As far as I knew they never fixed the floor. They left it like that as a reminder not to get within the prescribed 2′ while the thing was up and running. It looked just like that display!
While there are many turtles in the lake and in the canal they are most visible at the overlook on the east side of the lake by the parking lot. For about a month (ending a couple of weeks ago) many turtles were leaving the lake to lay eggs and so I was seeing them all over the place on both sides of the lake.
Yesterday evening I was only on the west side of the lake on the path between the Ygnacio Canal and the lake. From there I walked to the Contra Costa Canal which is on the north edge of the park and took the canal path home. There were river otter hunting in the Contra Costa canal but it was getting too dark to get good pictures.
You saw the turtles out of the water laying eggs a couple of weeks ago. It must have been interesting to watch them trundle around. I didn’t know there were turtles in that area (guess it’s the lake not the pond). Standing at the overlook one day, they started swimming up. I guess they were used to people feeding them from there. I tried to take pictures, but I didn’t get anything useable. It looked like there were several Red Racers among them that must have been pets abandoned there. And, some of the largest turtles I’ve ever seen — although I wasn’t especially looking for them, I will now. It was a thoroughly pleasant and unexpected surprise to see them.
Congratulations on your sweet, beautiful and angelic baby. Couldn’t help but look … and you must be positively overjoyed after all of that heartache.