Curse you, SRP! Grr, argh!

[AZRedhawk44]

I woke up this morning at about 5:45, got in the shower and made myself presentable, then took care of some work stuff between 6 and 6:30.  At 6:35, the power to my neighborhood went out.

Again.

SRP has a hard time keeping the lights on in my neighborhood.  Nevermind the fact we have a HUGE nuclear reactor just outside town that exports power to CA.   And we have bajillions of little generator plants that run on deisel, natgas, coal, solar and whatever else.

So I have my laptop dual-headed and an external display on it that requires AC juice.  The laptop started running on battery so I didn't lose any work, but I couldn't re-arrange the app (Visual Studio) on the other window and save my work over there.  The dialog box was in modal state and wouldn't allow movement of any other window associated with VS.

I go out to my garage (using flashlights/battery lanterns) and retrieve my spare car battery and 400w AC inverter, drag it into my office and juice up the display so I can save my work.

Turns out, the problem (according to a press statement from SRP this morning) is that their coal plants in Springerville and Page couldn't keep up with demand.

So, instead of surging juice at Palo Verde... they turn off Mesa.   About 10,000 people went spontaneously black, a good chunk of them probably mid-shower while trying to get ready for work.

I was planning on coming in to the office this morning anyways, so I manually opened the garage door and took off in my truck.

I'm really getting frustrated by this.  I've lost power in this house about a dozen times in the last 16 months (as has the whole neighborhood).  After the last one I went out and bought solar panels, that spare battery and the inverter so I could continue to work during those interruptions.  But, it didn't happen for about 3-4 months and I figured maybe they replaced whatever crappy old transformer was causing the problem where it would cut out about once a month.

I think this month I'm going to finish my plans of mounting a fixed solar array beside my house and run a circuit off a 2000w inverter to my bedroom and my office.  I'm really getting tired of resetting all the stove/microwave/radio clocks all over the house.  I doubt I can ever go 100% off-grid even ignoring the heating/cooling systems.  But I'm going to gain at least SOME independence here.  I'm really sick of it.

Shame on you, SRP.  Keep the effing power on!

[AZRedhawk44]

And one other thing:

Whenever power is sacked in the Valley to shunt it somewhere else... It's always taken from MESA!

Take it from Paradise Valley!  Take it from Scottsdale!  Take it from Gilbert, once in a while!  Why don't you shut off the ball parks, the spring training parks with their 24/7/365 lighting, the sports arenas and the mind-numbingly unnecessary bureaucratic excesses in downtown Phoenix?

I say again:  effers.

[Grandpa Shooter]

You are the one who couldn't stand the West Valley and trucked back over to the East Side.   You brought it on yourself.

[Jamisjockey]

Speaking of mind numbing.

We're having rolling blackouts in texas today.  Scheduled. This is the same power grid that supports weeks on end of 100* summer days with 90% humidity, people running pools and AC units and all that.  Yes, electric heat pumps are more prevelant here than elsewhere in the country....but.....
Power is going off about half an hour for every 2 hours its on.  So my heater spends about 30 minutes trying to catch up.  And I've got it set at 72 so that it doesn't get that cold when its turned off