Power Outages

I slept through it, but Lubbock experienced a power outage early Saturday morning, July 21, 2012 http://lubbockonline.com/local-news/2012-07-22/lpl-start-investigating-power-fai.   http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/Power-Plant-Failure-Leaves-Most-Of-One-Texas-City-In-The-Dark-Overnight-163283846.html   http://lubbockonline.com/local-news/2012-07-21/lubbock-restaurants-boiling-water-customers-following-power-outage   When I woke up, the power was on, and the clocks indicated it had been on for about an hour and 40 minutes.  I did not think much about it, and proceeded with my Saturday.  Which was quite busy, and did not include a computer session until about 4 PM. 

I decided to check to see if I could find out more about the power outage, when it occurred and how extensive it was.  I was surprised.  It knew it occurred early Saturday morning, and I learned I was without power for about 2.5 hours.  The outage was spread throughout much of the city, and the water pressure was so low, there was a boil water precaution, as there might have been some backwash in the water purification system. Well, I do not drink tap water, and the minimal contact in the shower and brushing my teeth did not worry me, but I quickly replaced the cat water dishes with boiled water.

The water precautions were lifted mid-afternoon on Sunday, July 22, 2012.  So that was good.

The official explanation had to do with a problem with a lightning arrester.

Today, there were "rolling blackouts" or "rolling brownouts" in the city http://lubbockonline.com/local-news/2012-07-21/lubbock-restaurants-boiling-water-customers-following-power-outage.

When I got home, it seemed my house had been spared: The clocks were okay, but the most sensitive surge protector had tripped.  After some time, the official explanation was that while trying to repair the problem that caused the outage on Saturday morning, another problem occurred.

Lubbock used to have two electric power providers: Excel (formerly called Southwestern Public Service) and Lubbock Power and Light (LP&L.)  I have used LP&L at my house for many years.  Before I bought this house, most of the time, I used Southwestern Public Service  (SPS): their rates were lower.  However twice during that time period, when I was without power, SPS was exceedingly slow at restoring power.  I became frustrated, and changed to LP&L.

LP&L has a history of poor performance, and fiduciary mismanagement.  When I first moved into my house, I had regular power outages. Then, a "leg" connecting to my house went out, I called LP&L, they came, replaced the "leg" and my power connection has been reliable since.

Today, the radical media people are making much of the fact that the only electric power service in the city is LP&L.  There is discussion about the lack of competition, and that monopolies or "socialism" breeds poor product or service. I agree with this. I think, though that LP&L has hit a blip, and may have some engineering problems (personnel inadequacies?) If this continues, it is a systemic problem, and our elected officials will need to ask some hard questions.  If it is a fluke, let the professionals do their jobs.