Jimmie_Ohio
Member
Can anyone in the power generation field answer this:
I have been watching the troubles that hurricane Katrina and more recently, Rita have caused.
In Galveston, the news media tells us that fires caused by transformers exploding is causing the majority of the damage.
Why doesn't the electric utility turn off the power somewhere "upstream" of the poles? Surely anyone who would have stayed behind could not have expected to have power during the storm. Any facility that needed power to function (hospitals, for example) have back-up generators.
Not to sound at all unsympathetic, but this just doesn't make sense to me. Am I being to over-simplistic in my evaluation of the complexities of operating an electrical distribution system for an entire area?
I have been watching the troubles that hurricane Katrina and more recently, Rita have caused.
In Galveston, the news media tells us that fires caused by transformers exploding is causing the majority of the damage.
Why doesn't the electric utility turn off the power somewhere "upstream" of the poles? Surely anyone who would have stayed behind could not have expected to have power during the storm. Any facility that needed power to function (hospitals, for example) have back-up generators.
Not to sound at all unsympathetic, but this just doesn't make sense to me. Am I being to over-simplistic in my evaluation of the complexities of operating an electrical distribution system for an entire area?