Native American tribe insulates itself from CA blackouts with microgrid utility

Re:Native American tribe insulates itself from CA blackouts ... by joe_the_user on Sunday January 05, 2020 @12:29AM (#21959832)

I think you have it pretty much backward. Attaining a power-generation level necessary to be off the regular grid is not that hard. And becoming independent of PG&E would have serious benefits to a city of about any size at this point given the serious economic cost of unreliable power.

The problem is the cost, logistics and legalities of an alternative grid. Every place that is on PG&E power currently would have to gain control of the PG&E power poles and spend the money needed to modernize them. That is a huge cost.

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Re:Native American tribe insulates itself from CA blackouts ... by mattrp on Sunday January 05, 2020 @01:09AM (#21959981)

Don’t forget to add this - if you’re operating as a utility you will be regulated as a utility.

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Re:Native American tribe insulates itself from CA blackouts ... by jessaustin on Sunday January 05, 2020 @09:14AM (#21961314)

I.e., PUCs and other regulators owned by the incumbent utilities will seek to end your existence.

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Re:Native American tribe insulates itself from CA blackouts ... by mattrp on Sunday January 05, 2020 @12:21PM (#21962374)

That’s the gist but the surprising thing is that the incumbents and the PUC’s have created a sort of toxic scheme with rate base accounting that is now showing itself in the form of aging and poorly maintained infrastructure.

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Re:Native American tribe insulates itself from CA blackouts ... by bsder on Sunday January 05, 2020 @05:27PM (#21964607)

> Every place that is on PG&E power currently would have to gain control of the PG&E power poles and spend the money needed to modernize them. That is a huge cost.

And, after dealing with all that infrastructure, add a substation capable of disconnecting and reconnecting a town or city to the primary PG&E grid since they need that for consistent power anyway.

Or, they could just stay connected to the PG&E grid like now and spend nothing.

And, as a side benefit, you don't have to deal with the local town politics to try to get this through. Really. I have stories and stories of people who simply tried to bring broadband to their little towns and the fiasco that it always became--partially because of the telcos but often the locals were worse.

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