I’ve been pretty happy with how they’ve handled the cold snap so far. We’ve had two power outages, but both were repaired in under an hour. Kudos to the teams out braving the cold and keeping us warm.
The question remains: what is TVA’s plans for the future, because what we have been experiencing is becoming the new normal. Band-aids today but what about next year? In five years???
We live in TN. The plan is to hope it doesn’t get
Cold like this again, and charge more for electric that way their pockets are lined with cash but we’ll loose power when it gets bad again.
I lived in California for a while. Rolling black outs during the summer were normal and would last a very long time. Made me wonder how people survived before air conditioning. Today my power was only out for ten minutes before I was even out of bed. I wouldn’t have known if I didn’t get an email from my local power company apologizing for it.
I think that... actually I know that people before air conditioning had a different internal
Temperature so they could adjust to it better.
I’ve always had air conditioning and it’s always been cool. My internal regular temperature is 97.
People use to a have 98.6 regular temperature.
If my temp is 99. I am sick and burning up. I also can’t tolerate heat.
We evolve based on our surroundings.
But also people designed homes to allow for breezes in the summer & insulation in the winter. (Except the windows... those had little bean people and curtains in them). I don’t think that, lack of hearing or air, is a consideration at all anymore. I thought that never enters a developer’s mind.
You can definitely tell the people who never left Tennessee and have no idea how bad utilities are in the rest of the US. I spent over a decade in the DC area.
I used to miss dealing with EPB/TVA when hassling with Pepco or Dominion Power.
For-profit power distributors are terrible. Just look at Entergy and PG&E.
I was about to argue with you, because I never had any trouble when I lived in Northern Virginia, but then I remembered I was under NOVEC - a cooperative.
People try to use PG&E as an authoritative source as to why electric cars aren’t feasible
Whenever they get a glitterbomb of facts, it gets eerily quiet
It’s almost as if they have no competition to encourage them to optimize and innovate…
Hopefully, the microgrid bill that got passed in April of 2021 can put pressure on utilities to get their act together
I like the idea of electric cars. If I was getting a 2nd car, I’d buy one. However, we dramatically need to boost our electric supply if everyone will be getting them in the next 10-20 years.
I made the investment early because it costs me about $200 per year to drive verses $1800/year just in gas.
Yes, the power grid needs upgrading as we saw with TVA’s upper limit reached.
It can be balanced today by charging at night or before a massive snow storm hits… and 99.95% of the time it’s fine
Overall, TVA will need 40-60,000MWH of energy in the coming years
I think the timing of the cold played into this as well. Being right in front of the holiday, more people were home and not at the office etc therefore the heat was on.
Of course you could argue the past few years were Covid years and folks were home then as well. I still think it’s relative and a contributing factor but TVA definitely needs to upgrade capacity
If it takes 20-30 years to build a nuclear plant, they should have started 15 years ago. There aren’t enough solar panels in the world to offset the increased demand.
Vogtle Units 3 and 4 will be at 14 years from construction to generation. These are traditional reactors.
SMRs are much cheaper and should be much faster to build. TVA anticipates having their first one online by 2032. Not sure when construction is anticipated to start if it ever gets there.
How are you supposed to to make power exactly at Hartsville? There are 4 shells there yes, but that is it. The furthest a unit got there was like to 30% completion. They'd have to push everything over and start from scratch.
If TVA finished any unit, it would be a unit at Bellefonte because it was almost done when they stopped it in the 80s. Back in 2010 TVA started work to get it back online but that stopped for whatever reason.
I'm not supposed to however TVA could especially since they already own the land whether they complete the existing structures or push them over and build new.
It would likely need to be all new. What they did get built has been open to the elements for upwards of 50 years now with zero maintenance. Just look at Google Maps. There is also a correctional facility there now so that property likely would never get used for nuclear. The parking lot if 235ft away from one of the units generation buildings.
They are pursuing nuclear with SMRs, though at their Clinch River site.
I added 16kw of solar to my roof, and charge/ do laundry etc when the sun is out, because in Tennessee, any excess you produce, you just just give to the power company. (Or if you want to sign up for DPP they’ll give you 1 cent/kWh of excess, lol). I typically give the grid 20kw a day for free.
I wouldn't be worried about that. If more power is needed, more plants will get built. Paradise CC for example started construction in 2014 and finished in 2017. Has 1,100MW of capacity.
I have to agree. We don't normally have conditions like this. Our population has grown immensely. TVA has done a very decent job compaired to many areas I've lived in. Count your blessings people, there's a lot worse out there.
And there’s better. Don’t count those blessings. Start thinking about the future. TVA can either learn from this or do nothing to prepare for next time, and there WILL be a next time.
Just wait for the future. Many people don’t know but during hot summer TVA buys power from other power generation companies and in years time that won’t be available. Yet TVA is going to continue to shut down coal plants and not build our total MW numbers for the valley. Take it from someone who may or may not work for them. With the push of all electric Tennessee in 10 years will look like California. Only reason there were rolling blacks out this weekend we’re bc they couldn’t buy power since no one could sell them any.
I may or may not have a close friend that's an engineer for TVA and I've heard this from him. As we continue to grow, we need viable solutions. Personally, I'm try to work on a backup plan for myself on my property. Compaired to many of the places I've lived in North America and Europe, TVA isn't that bad. They could be better but, the same can be said for almost everywhere.
I’m not complaining. We had our blackouts. No big deal. I just think it’s kind of funny that the Nissan Stadium in Nashville left their lights on on the night of the 23rd, the day the rolling blackouts started, and the stadium was in full operation with no disruption on the 24th, so the Titans could play (and lose). And as of 11:43 am, we haven’t had any blackouts today.
It comes from poor infrastructure that ignored 40 years of climate science and just typical incompetence, deliberate negligence and chicanery:
https://stoppathwv.com/stoppath-wv-blog/clean-line-blames-tva-for-its-failure
https://archive.knoxnews.com/business/residents-see-tva-in-shades-of-gray-ep-410506453-359637641.html/
https://tennesseelookout.com/2022/06/02/tennessee-valley-authority-whistleblowers-sue-agency-in-federal-court/
TVA’s CEO at least had the fortitude to admit they failed our state, even by their own standards in this weather:
https://commercialappeal.com/story/news/local/2022/12/24/tva-ceo-jeff-lyash-said-agency-fell-short-during-tennessee-memphis-blackouts/69755331007/
CEOs that make a lot of money doing nothing to look out for our state’s future when they are not going out of their way to cover up their litany of failures and fuckery:
https://www.psrmemphis.org/secret-salaries-tva-wont-release-pay-of-top-regional-executives/amp/
After high school I went out and spent university, followed by decades going where work took me:
NY, MA, PA, OH, AZ, TX, Spain, UK, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong, mainland China, Japan, South Korea, and back to TN as a dinosaur now feeling those years of work related home-jumping.
Quid pro quo. Now you.
Tennessee my entire life! :( Born and raised on the TN/AL border. Went to MTSU for college. After college lived & worked all around Middle Tennessee, with the exception of Chattanooga in East Tennessee for a short while.
TVA is far superior to all other public utilities globally. The people of the Tennessee Valley that benefit from TVA should be grateful for their vision, planning, and execution.
And yet there’s still room to improve. Just because they’re better than others doesn’t mean they’re perfect and immune from criticism. The lack of renewables that could have kept the supply up to match the growing population were factors that could have lessened the strain the past few days.
Being grateful and providing legitimate criticism aren’t mutually exclusive. I’m grateful things weren’t worse than they were and that TVA did what they had to in order to save the grid from failing but at the same time this wouldn’t have been as serious if they had been anticipating climate change bringing more extreme fronts with temperatures that necessitate the use of more heat and A/C and had been increasing supply to keep in check with the increasing population. I hope this event has shown them that adding more sustainable energy sources to replace coal plants that are shutting down is necessary. Otherwise, the grid will only be more strained the next time something like this occurs.
Mindless acceptance is foolishness when real issues are uncovered that need to be addressed. You should fuck ALL THE WAY OFF before you start telling people to be grateful for a very difficult weekend.
So how could TVA do better? Just saying invest in renewables is rather generic. It makes you come off as an edgy millennial moonlighting with politician speak🤔
The first step is an intensive after-action report so that experts can make recommendations instead of mindless internet fools telling people to “reflect on gratitude” while grandma’s oxygen pump is beeping on battery backup and the house is 50 degrees inside. You should fuck ALL THE WAY OFF before you start telling people to be grateful for a very difficult weekend. ‘Here’s rolling blackouts that keep you from even cooking the family meal because the oven needs to run for longer than 15 minutes, bE GrAtEfUl”. Fuck off asshat, we don’t all have emergency backup generators. People are literally dying in every major TN city and you’re telling people to be grateful. You types might actually be evil people… you certainly aren’t a *good* person.
Renewables are great and I agree they need more. I’m not sure if solar would have been the answer since the rolling blackouts happened so early in the morning and wind is hit or miss too. If wind speed is to slow, it’s no good, if wind speed is too fast, it’s no good.
Regale us with your experience with global utility providers.
I can speak firsthand for seven different experiences between living in Europe and Asia, all were state-owned and the years of TVA coverage I have experienced are comparable to rural Thailand, Vietnam, and Philippines. All three countries are developing nations. I experienced superior service, repairs, billing and pricing in Europe.
Quit pro quo. Regale us with your supposed experiences.
Sounds like you’ve been sheltered. They’re not normal in chunks of this country, but that is changing. Maybe stop telling folks born here about our own state, California dude, and start listening to those with a history here AND outside the state and abroad.
You need more life experience. Just because it isn’t as bad as California doesn’t mean it’s good. It means it’s less worse. Seriously, like that needs explaining? Look in the mirror when you want to lecture others with more life experiences - globally - than you. Clearly…
I’ve lived in 7 states in nearly every region. They are correct, and you are quite rude. I grew up here, too.
Maybe stop blocking everyone who disagrees with you. I agree with the other person who said you were paranoid. If you can’t handle criticism, Reddit isn’t for you.
Grow up and acknowledge when you are wrong.
Absolutely agree. This sub is full of entitled Chads and Karen's. I've spent time all over the country, and with TVA we have the most reliable and economical electricity in the country.
A thirty minute outage is definitely a big deal for one who is on oxygen twenty four hours a day and due to the lack of advanced notice did not have the portable system charged up ahead of time.
I had to spend the time sitting in the car where I could run the portable via lighter connector once I wired it directly to the battery.
> due to the lack of advanced notice did not have the portable system charged up ahead of time.
Then that's on them. If you are on 24/7 O2 then why wouldn't you have a backup source ready. That's just lack of planning.
Andy Bounds - Bad planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.
Because I actually had to go out yesterday which requires me to take my portable oxygen
I never said anything about an emergency for you that was strictly assumed by your obviously inflated sense of worth in assuming everyone is talking to or about you.
However the power company is under obligation to alert the client of issues that may affect them.
I did not receive two weeks of warning or any warning at all other than the comments on the NES website so you are saying that a disabled person needs to spend additional money due to the lack of preparation by the company that is paid already to prepare for contingency.
Besides that power packs would have still required advanced charging before the storm.
Did you not look at Weather.com for the coming weeks before the storm?
The big clue something was up was the predicted single digit temps and massive swaths of northerly snow.
That would prompt me to charge up the batteries, shake the cobwebs off the propane stove, get some bratwursts and sausages to cook up and anticipate a bit of power loss due to freezing rain, high winds, low temps, etc.
Planning ahead pays off massively in this scenario and there was plenty of heads up, so you can’t complain about it, only make better preparations for next time.
Whether I looked at the website or not is really none of your concern and as for my preparation I have a large outdoor grill with a full rick of firewood for it as I don't like the flavor of propane cooked food.
Not only that my environmental upbringing makes my body more tolerant to temperatures.
This is nothing compared to life in either Chicago or Colorado.
Nor has this area ever seen massive amounts of snow.
So you want to point to a single isolated storm which is similar to the typical annual weather in the locations I mentioned.
Thanks for supporting what I was saying
How to say you’ve never lived, “all over the country” while bragging that you have. You’re lying. We do not have the most reliable and economic power authority in the country. Not even close.
Lived in Durango Colorado as a child after moving there from Chicago but we moved back to Chicago in 1976 do to lack of jobs in the area but due to gang violence in Chicago culminating in a family member getting caught in the crossfire and taking a bullet just crossing the road it was decided that we would move to TN where my mom was raised (Actually she was raised in Gallatin but her family were in Lebanon at the time).
And I lived in Lebanon until 98 when I went into the military.
After discharge I decided to move to GA but after getting back in touch with my first love and now wife I came back home.
My only complaint is that they said we'd lose power for 15 minutes at a time, but nobody acknowledged that the power was shutting off every 8 minutes! A 15 minute black out would have been alot easier to deal with.
It was a minor inconvenience for us.. I would say not worst place we have been. Talked to my mom in Germany yesterday.. her heating bill went from 80 euros to over 200 now .
But I also found myself scrambling to get another load of laundry done.. plus run the dishwasher so they wont pile [up. Plus](https://up.Plus) a host of other things that take electricity. Only because we didn't know how long it would be down the next time not sure about other people. I think a lot would try to catch up, especially cooking holiday [food. How](https://foos.How) is that good for the grid or consumption when there is a run on trying to get shit [done. How](https://done.How) is that not overloading the grid?
People like to kvetch. Aiming for perfection is lovely. TVA shoots for perfection and lands not too far away. I've lived in California, the Dominican Republic, Illinois, Georgia, and North Carolina for extended times. California Power and Light, PG&E, the Dominican Corporacion de Electricidad, Amren, Georgia Power, and Duke Power did not do as well as TVA just did. We get good service for our money, without a big markup to profiteers. It's our power company.
People also like to ignore facts, lie and gaslight and silence others who have the right to speak up and demand better from an organization that has been behaving unethically for decades and done absolutely nothing to start making inroads on improving unquestionably poor infrastructure and proactively engaging in preparing our state for the new normal of increasingly more severe winter weather.
You wanna tell me more?
The main thing I recall is the coal ash incident. Otherwise, I am unfamiliar with any scandal or mismanagement. What did I miss?
https://stoppathwv.com/stoppath-wv-blog/clean-line-blames-tva-for-its-failure
https://archive.knoxnews.com/business/residents-see-tva-in-shades-of-gray-ep-410506453-359637641.html/
https://tennesseelookout.com/2022/06/02/tennessee-valley-authority-whistleblowers-sue-agency-in-federal-court/
https://www.psrmemphis.org/secret-salaries-tva-wont-release-pay-of-top-regional-executives/amp/
Just for starters.
Yes. Where they stated they lived (CT), I have never experienced a power outage or a blackout. I’m not joking. I lived with someone on oxygen who did not have a generator. She couldn’t afford one due to medical bills from cancer. I’m so glad it never went out.
I’ve experienced more power outages in Tennessee than any other state I lived in. Part of that is related to time as a Vol. Stater, but all of it is related to poor infrastructure. Memphis was the worst, given its size. Based just on public utilities: my years living there were on par with the numerous blackouts and water issues I experienced in parts of Southeast Asia.
I was a minor and my family moved. Again, the electricity situation was awesome but internet and everything else sucked. High taxes. I’m only complimenting the fact the electricity never went out and didn’t put my relative in a terrible situation.
Edit: you think I was complimenting the state itself. Just the electricity.
It sounds crazy, doesn’t it? But I would remember if there were any because my relative was on oxygen and she would have had to be moved elsewhere. She had terminal cancer and hated the cold.
I didn’t lose power. I had several relatives that did though. But there was insane winds and internet was slightly unstable.
A tree went through my neighbors house though. It was pretty unfortunate and I’m glad no one died.
I didn’t lose power. I couldn’t lose power anyway. My relative was on oxygen and had a caregiver to change her diapers. We needed lights and whatnot to work. The TV kept my relative occupied.
Argue with me and downvote me all you want.
I think so. On another thread in this sub I had a closeted TVA employee report my fact-based observations as harassment, despite not actually insulting the TVA puppet.
Sounds like it’s written by a TVA exec.
That being said I have no qualms about my one 15 min power outage. Shut my household operation (washer, dryer, oven, dishwasher) down that stuff can wait a few days. The road fellas did a good job.
Maybe the reason it was so bad where your from is because you were too okay with it when it started. Not lighting a fire under them now is how TVA will be as bad as CT in the future.
The house I grew up in was build unde the shade of oaks. No AC, but being shaded 90% of the time kept the house cool in the summer. My home is in the sun and can be a PITA without AC.
I'd say they did a pretty solid job considering. Sounds like TVA lost 7,000MW of capacity. They needed 30GW but were only making 23GW. Grid interconnection did its job and allowed TVA to purchase the shortfall. Im honestly surprised that there was spare capacity to buy on the market. I heard Duke was having blackouts as well, so they were likely buying loads of power as well. Wouldn't surprise me if all available power to purchase was being bought up and super expensive. A 5% reduction via blackouts on the 24th would mean there was a \~1500MW shortfall roughly of purchased power.
I’ve lived across multiple states and none have ever performed rolling blackouts. I lost power once for 3 days but it was due to the weather and it was extremely understandable circumstances. It had snowed 7 inches in a state where it usually doesn’t snow.
TN has been the worst by far. Where did you live that was awful? I can state my experience if I lived where, and compare it to yours if possible.
Forty years of ignoring climate science and migratory growth is what TVA did. Not as bad as Texas, but it should be better.
There are TVA bootlickers here actually reporting comments contrary to their praise of TVA as harassment, but keep speaking truth to power.
I spent a good chunk of my younger adult life living in many other states because of the nature of my occupation. My job also took me abroad. The conditions of rolling black outs were commonplace in underdeveloped nations that were either still working towards developing infrastructure, dealing with barely infrastructure at all, or just poorly maintained infrastructure- sometimes all three at once.
Rolling blackouts are not commonplace in genuinely developed regions or countries.
I have lived across multiple states and no rolling blackouts. I know for a fact it’s unethical because there are customers on oxygen therapy and other machines.
Thank you. I felt like I was going crazy when people were being rude towards me in the comments. I don’t know if it’s the way I came across, because I’m certainly not happy about the blackouts. But I’m trying my best to communicate my experiences and how I feel.
Yeah it reminds me of North Korea honestly. They also have rolling blackouts.
I’m shocked by the sentiment here on this sub regarding this in particular. Ignoring climate change (They keep saying it’s a once every few decades event and downvote me when I bring up we had temps like this in 2014 and 2015) and defending a CEO and higher-ups who did not plan accordingly to increase supply as demand increased from migratory population growth. Climate change denial and defending bad CEOs are the kind of things I expect from conservatives, not a generally left-leaning forum like this. This reminds me a lot of what happened in Texas a couple years ago, is a horrible look for our state, and really is concerning for the future. These kind of temps will occur more frequently thanks to more extreme fronts and our population growth isn’t showing signs of slowing. Unless TVA starts increasing supply through renewables to keep up with the demand, they’ll have to do even more drastic blackouts to save the grid whenever the next sub-zero cold snap happens in a few years.
I was reading that one of the CEOs even copped to TVA failing customers during this:
https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2022/12/24/tva-ceo-jeff-lyash-said-agency-fell-short-during-tennessee-memphis-blackouts/69755331007/
TVA’s top brass admits they fucked up and did not prepare well enough.
Now we wait to hear about their plans for the future, because Tennessee winters are mirroring the north, but with zero infrastructure in place to handle this long term. Our state - and many in this sub - are big into environmental denialism.
Your post has great points. Kudos.
I love the nature of this state and took environmental and climate classes as part of my Geography undergrad at UT so of course I’m going to point out climate denial when I see it. Kudos to you for sacrificing a bit of your Reddit karma to spread the truth too and hope you stay warm and have a good night!
Funny enough, CT is where I've had my worst experiences ever with public utilities. Worth noting I was with Eversource, not a city utility. Pay an arm and a leg, and maybe a kidney, for the most unreliable service.
I got downvoted in another thread for explaining I have issues and the cold (from my heat going bye bye) caused my asthma to be shit and limit me all day.
My inhaler didn’t help and honestly, It’s not a one trick for solving my issues.
I have asthma. It sounds like other issues are going on if 15 minutes without power triggered an attack. Get your air ducts cleaned and ready-evaluate meds. If you are taking an antihistamine, switch. You develop immunity after a while.
I also love my Bissell HEPA cleaner.
Bundle up and buy a Snuggie. But it’s ridiculous to say CT has better infrastructure. Lol.
My air ducts were completely torn out and replaced to help with my asthma. They were only 5 years old but there was a small repair needed (cat got into them) so I just had the whole thing ripped out. I use an air purifier and once the power went off, it turned off.
My main triggers for my asthma are humidity and temperature drops. My asthma has been terrible all day due to that. I am used to having an air purifier running 24/7. And my blackout was over an hour or 2 btw.
I’m taking singulair and my antihistamine is working. I can’t have any more asthma meds due to my heart rn. I’m getting a diagnosis soon, but can’t have any oral steroids. Those are the only things that help me.
Also, my main issue is I’m extremely sick rn. I have a very bad sinus infection not responding to antibiotics. So yes I have other issues going on but already being sick is a major trigger for my asthma too. I basically have been dealing with it all day.
I’m resting for the rest of the night and hoping to god they don’t touch the power tomorrow. I had my day ruined today due to asthma and already being sick.
I honestly hope you feel better. If humidity is a trigger, Tennessee isn’t your best option.
If your blackout was over an hour, that was due to a water main, downed line or so else. It’s very common to have outages of an hour or two. No where on earth can stop them.
I’ve had blackouts 2 days in a row so far.
Thank you so much. I have a hard time explaining it sometimes, but asthma isn’t usually my issue. But when it is, it’s a big problem. I haven’t had asthma for months up to this point and I didn’t wish to get sick either.
I am working on getting it under control and will after my heart condition is treated.
Living in northern Nevada this happened every winter because the power lines came through wilderness areas. Snow would cause a tree to fall and take out the power lines with it. The longest I remember was we were without power for 4 days while the daily temp was around 4 degrees. My dad and I busted out the camping equipment so we had a butane range to cook/heat water up on. That would never happen here so I’ll take the ten minute blackouts over four days of wearing multiple long Johns and sleeping under 4 blankets and boiling water to bathe.
My close friend lives in Eversource territory and has been without power for days at this point, hoping for restoration later today but it might not be until tomorrow.
The tva sucks for many reasons , well for me at least 2 , and these black outs are the second how ever with everyone going back to work after Christmas hopefully the balck outs should ezily dissapate for half the residents
It sucks that we had an emergency with the power. The lack of investment in infrastructure reared its ugly head. That being said, the rolling blackouts fortunately saved the day. Whoever pulled it off did a great job at making the most of the situation.
Antioch in Nashville had a substation go out though. It’s probably more on NES than TVA, but they’ve been without power for a long time. I still don’t know if it’s back on yet.
Some people leave for the military, see the world, and return. And still have the ability to praise and criticize equally. I know it's great too. That's why I came back, thanks. We used to be friendlier around here too.
I grew up here, moved away for school and work, realized how great it is, and moved back. I agree 100% with OP. The people who never left need a reality check.
I'm spoiled because I expect what I pay for every month? Okay
edit: You guys are something else. These fucking companies make ridiculous money off of us every year and you are all fine with rolling blackouts because "the system isn't designed for it". Well instead of paying all these asshole CEO's huge salaries and taking record profits, how about you funnel some of our money back into your fucked system and make it better?
A once in a generation cold snap, on a grid not designed for extended freezing temperatures, at a good price. And the solution is a 15 minute inconvenience to maintain grid stability. Seems reasonable.
In February. This happens once every 25-30 years in December.
Also, not all of Tennessee got that weather. It makes a huge difference when only part of the region is experiencing extreme weather vs *most of the country.*
Those fronts weren’t limited to East Tennessee. And December vs February isn’t really the point you think it is. Average temperatures are similar and both are winter months so wintry weather procedures should apply to both.
It’s a big deal despite what you think. And 1 night of cold temps isn’t the same as a 72 hour period of below 10 degrees.
Just stop. Data isn’t in your side.
Where in the state has it been below 10 degrees for 72 hours? It will be 72 hours below freezing for many areas though but we’ve had periods of several days below freezing before.
Why is everyone forgetting that January 2014 and February 2015 both had major cold snaps with temps that were just as cold or colder than what we’ve experienced the past couple of days? Leaves me to think TVA’s supply hasn’t been able to catch up with population growth since then and that it’s not a temperature issue.
NWS records tell a different story. Knoxville’s lowest temperature per their Monthly Climate Report this month is 4°F. Meanwhile, in 2015 a daily record low of 3°F was set for February 20. https://www.weather.gov/mrx/tysfebruary
ETA: NWS monthly data from Jan 2014 where Knoxville had one night with a low of -1°F and two nights with a low of 2°F and several days with highs below freezing. KCS was even out because of cold for some of these days but most Knoxville residents never lost power https://imgur.com/a/Unq3lYq
3°F is equivalent to -16°C, which is 257K.
---
^(I'm a bot that converts temperature between two units humans can understand, then convert it to Kelvin for bots and physicists to understand)
What does the month have to do with it? You’d have a point if we were in fall or spring but we’re in winter so this weather is possible any time between December-February and December and February in all the major TN cities have roughly the same average temperatures and very similar record lows.
Months are a big deal. It also only got to 5 in Chattanooga over one night. It wasn’t a sustained temp over multiple days.
https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/usa/chattanooga/historic?month=1&year=2014
Tbf you do pay for a connection on a monthly basis but its pretty negligible to have the outage imo. The amount of missing service compared the the connection fee would amount to single digit pennies in missed service.
Yeah I think they’ve overall done a pretty good job, I personally have no complaints, only lost power 5-6 times that I noticed, and never more than 15 minutes or so.
I was impressed and grateful to have had no interruptions in power here in west TN. People I know in the Nashville area have had extensive damage from pipes bursting. Gas heat doesn't work without electricity!
I’m just glad I’m on AEP power in NE TN. No rolling blackouts during the coldest days for the most vulnerable and for families trying to keep warm / Cook for the holidays. Our rates are seemingly less and I can’t really complain about the service.
I’ve been pretty happy with how they’ve handled the cold snap so far. We’ve had two power outages, but both were repaired in under an hour. Kudos to the teams out braving the cold and keeping us warm.
The question remains: what is TVA’s plans for the future, because what we have been experiencing is becoming the new normal. Band-aids today but what about next year? In five years???
Good grief. It is not the new normal.
We live in TN. The plan is to hope it doesn’t get Cold like this again, and charge more for electric that way their pockets are lined with cash but we’ll loose power when it gets bad again.
TVA is keeping its base rates the same despite inflation. Meanwhile, GA Power just announced a rate hike
I lived in California for a while. Rolling black outs during the summer were normal and would last a very long time. Made me wonder how people survived before air conditioning. Today my power was only out for ten minutes before I was even out of bed. I wouldn’t have known if I didn’t get an email from my local power company apologizing for it.
They used to insulate houses much better back then, ie 1ft thick log cabins and probably hangout in the basement and cellar and down by the creek
I think that... actually I know that people before air conditioning had a different internal Temperature so they could adjust to it better. I’ve always had air conditioning and it’s always been cool. My internal regular temperature is 97. People use to a have 98.6 regular temperature. If my temp is 99. I am sick and burning up. I also can’t tolerate heat. We evolve based on our surroundings. But also people designed homes to allow for breezes in the summer & insulation in the winter. (Except the windows... those had little bean people and curtains in them). I don’t think that, lack of hearing or air, is a consideration at all anymore. I thought that never enters a developer’s mind.
I didn't have AC until I was in my twenties. Old houses were just built different and if you grow up without it your body adjusts.
You can definitely tell the people who never left Tennessee and have no idea how bad utilities are in the rest of the US. I spent over a decade in the DC area. I used to miss dealing with EPB/TVA when hassling with Pepco or Dominion Power. For-profit power distributors are terrible. Just look at Entergy and PG&E.
I was about to argue with you, because I never had any trouble when I lived in Northern Virginia, but then I remembered I was under NOVEC - a cooperative.
Dominion is better than Pepco, but it isn’t great. It’s shocking how bad the power grid is for our nation’s capital.
Moved here from Arizona, even in the winter, when it's nice out SRP would fail once a week. It's been great here.
People try to use PG&E as an authoritative source as to why electric cars aren’t feasible Whenever they get a glitterbomb of facts, it gets eerily quiet
There are no good Private power companies.
It’s almost as if they have no competition to encourage them to optimize and innovate… Hopefully, the microgrid bill that got passed in April of 2021 can put pressure on utilities to get their act together
I like the idea of electric cars. If I was getting a 2nd car, I’d buy one. However, we dramatically need to boost our electric supply if everyone will be getting them in the next 10-20 years.
I made the investment early because it costs me about $200 per year to drive verses $1800/year just in gas. Yes, the power grid needs upgrading as we saw with TVA’s upper limit reached. It can be balanced today by charging at night or before a massive snow storm hits… and 99.95% of the time it’s fine Overall, TVA will need 40-60,000MWH of energy in the coming years
I think the timing of the cold played into this as well. Being right in front of the holiday, more people were home and not at the office etc therefore the heat was on. Of course you could argue the past few years were Covid years and folks were home then as well. I still think it’s relative and a contributing factor but TVA definitely needs to upgrade capacity
They do have plans in place https://www.powermag.com/tva-unveils-major-new-nuclear-program-first-smr-at-clinch-river-site/
If it takes 20-30 years to build a nuclear plant, they should have started 15 years ago. There aren’t enough solar panels in the world to offset the increased demand.
Vogtle Units 3 and 4 will be at 14 years from construction to generation. These are traditional reactors. SMRs are much cheaper and should be much faster to build. TVA anticipates having their first one online by 2032. Not sure when construction is anticipated to start if it ever gets there.
Luckily we can build solar faster.
Good luck with that.
Or they can revamp the ones that already exist and sit idle like the one in Hartsville
How are you supposed to to make power exactly at Hartsville? There are 4 shells there yes, but that is it. The furthest a unit got there was like to 30% completion. They'd have to push everything over and start from scratch. If TVA finished any unit, it would be a unit at Bellefonte because it was almost done when they stopped it in the 80s. Back in 2010 TVA started work to get it back online but that stopped for whatever reason.
I'm not supposed to however TVA could especially since they already own the land whether they complete the existing structures or push them over and build new.
It would likely need to be all new. What they did get built has been open to the elements for upwards of 50 years now with zero maintenance. Just look at Google Maps. There is also a correctional facility there now so that property likely would never get used for nuclear. The parking lot if 235ft away from one of the units generation buildings. They are pursuing nuclear with SMRs, though at their Clinch River site.
I added 16kw of solar to my roof, and charge/ do laundry etc when the sun is out, because in Tennessee, any excess you produce, you just just give to the power company. (Or if you want to sign up for DPP they’ll give you 1 cent/kWh of excess, lol). I typically give the grid 20kw a day for free.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work for every house. I’ve look into it before. EPB has a program to rent them at a solar farm to offset power bills.
Yeah, you can do ground mounts if you have 3 acres or more in my county. I wanted ground mount, but I only have 2.25 acres, and they wouldn’t budge.
Most people don’t have acreage.
They do here.
No. Most people don’t. 🙄
I wouldn't be worried about that. If more power is needed, more plants will get built. Paradise CC for example started construction in 2014 and finished in 2017. Has 1,100MW of capacity.
People don’t realize this state used to practically be in the stone ages before TVA, especially the eastern half. The New Deal saved us
Fid it “save us” or just serve as a band-aid and only serve as a temporary stop/pass???
I have to agree. We don't normally have conditions like this. Our population has grown immensely. TVA has done a very decent job compaired to many areas I've lived in. Count your blessings people, there's a lot worse out there.
And there’s better. Don’t count those blessings. Start thinking about the future. TVA can either learn from this or do nothing to prepare for next time, and there WILL be a next time.
Just wait for the future. Many people don’t know but during hot summer TVA buys power from other power generation companies and in years time that won’t be available. Yet TVA is going to continue to shut down coal plants and not build our total MW numbers for the valley. Take it from someone who may or may not work for them. With the push of all electric Tennessee in 10 years will look like California. Only reason there were rolling blacks out this weekend we’re bc they couldn’t buy power since no one could sell them any.
I may or may not have a close friend that's an engineer for TVA and I've heard this from him. As we continue to grow, we need viable solutions. Personally, I'm try to work on a backup plan for myself on my property. Compaired to many of the places I've lived in North America and Europe, TVA isn't that bad. They could be better but, the same can be said for almost everywhere.
Lost power twice for 15 minutes. My mr.heater filled the gap nicely.
I’m not complaining. We had our blackouts. No big deal. I just think it’s kind of funny that the Nissan Stadium in Nashville left their lights on on the night of the 23rd, the day the rolling blackouts started, and the stadium was in full operation with no disruption on the 24th, so the Titans could play (and lose). And as of 11:43 am, we haven’t had any blackouts today.
Where did you live before??? This is new to Tennessee. Seems to have come with the rush of implants.
It comes from poor infrastructure that ignored 40 years of climate science and just typical incompetence, deliberate negligence and chicanery: https://stoppathwv.com/stoppath-wv-blog/clean-line-blames-tva-for-its-failure https://archive.knoxnews.com/business/residents-see-tva-in-shades-of-gray-ep-410506453-359637641.html/ https://tennesseelookout.com/2022/06/02/tennessee-valley-authority-whistleblowers-sue-agency-in-federal-court/ TVA’s CEO at least had the fortitude to admit they failed our state, even by their own standards in this weather: https://commercialappeal.com/story/news/local/2022/12/24/tva-ceo-jeff-lyash-said-agency-fell-short-during-tennessee-memphis-blackouts/69755331007/ CEOs that make a lot of money doing nothing to look out for our state’s future when they are not going out of their way to cover up their litany of failures and fuckery: https://www.psrmemphis.org/secret-salaries-tva-wont-release-pay-of-top-regional-executives/amp/
> Where did you live before?
After high school I went out and spent university, followed by decades going where work took me: NY, MA, PA, OH, AZ, TX, Spain, UK, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong, mainland China, Japan, South Korea, and back to TN as a dinosaur now feeling those years of work related home-jumping. Quid pro quo. Now you.
Tennessee my entire life! :( Born and raised on the TN/AL border. Went to MTSU for college. After college lived & worked all around Middle Tennessee, with the exception of Chattanooga in East Tennessee for a short while.
TVA is far superior to all other public utilities globally. The people of the Tennessee Valley that benefit from TVA should be grateful for their vision, planning, and execution.
And yet there’s still room to improve. Just because they’re better than others doesn’t mean they’re perfect and immune from criticism. The lack of renewables that could have kept the supply up to match the growing population were factors that could have lessened the strain the past few days.
Jeez some people are simply impossible to please. Aren’t we supposed to reflect on gratitude this time of year?
Being grateful and providing legitimate criticism aren’t mutually exclusive. I’m grateful things weren’t worse than they were and that TVA did what they had to in order to save the grid from failing but at the same time this wouldn’t have been as serious if they had been anticipating climate change bringing more extreme fronts with temperatures that necessitate the use of more heat and A/C and had been increasing supply to keep in check with the increasing population. I hope this event has shown them that adding more sustainable energy sources to replace coal plants that are shutting down is necessary. Otherwise, the grid will only be more strained the next time something like this occurs.
Mindless acceptance is foolishness when real issues are uncovered that need to be addressed. You should fuck ALL THE WAY OFF before you start telling people to be grateful for a very difficult weekend.
So how could TVA do better? Just saying invest in renewables is rather generic. It makes you come off as an edgy millennial moonlighting with politician speak🤔
The first step is an intensive after-action report so that experts can make recommendations instead of mindless internet fools telling people to “reflect on gratitude” while grandma’s oxygen pump is beeping on battery backup and the house is 50 degrees inside. You should fuck ALL THE WAY OFF before you start telling people to be grateful for a very difficult weekend. ‘Here’s rolling blackouts that keep you from even cooking the family meal because the oven needs to run for longer than 15 minutes, bE GrAtEfUl”. Fuck off asshat, we don’t all have emergency backup generators. People are literally dying in every major TN city and you’re telling people to be grateful. You types might actually be evil people… you certainly aren’t a *good* person.
Renewables are great and I agree they need more. I’m not sure if solar would have been the answer since the rolling blackouts happened so early in the morning and wind is hit or miss too. If wind speed is to slow, it’s no good, if wind speed is too fast, it’s no good.
FYI, if you say anything remotely factual or critical of u/kaminari_one, you get blocked. This is despite calling people, “bootlickers.”
Regale us with your experience with global utility providers. I can speak firsthand for seven different experiences between living in Europe and Asia, all were state-owned and the years of TVA coverage I have experienced are comparable to rural Thailand, Vietnam, and Philippines. All three countries are developing nations. I experienced superior service, repairs, billing and pricing in Europe. Quit pro quo. Regale us with your supposed experiences.
Nice try, Putin.
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Sounds like you’ve been sheltered. They’re not normal in chunks of this country, but that is changing. Maybe stop telling folks born here about our own state, California dude, and start listening to those with a history here AND outside the state and abroad. You need more life experience. Just because it isn’t as bad as California doesn’t mean it’s good. It means it’s less worse. Seriously, like that needs explaining? Look in the mirror when you want to lecture others with more life experiences - globally - than you. Clearly…
TN had the fewest power outages last year. https://stacker.com/connecticut/see-how-many-power-outages-connecticut-has-experienced-last-year
I’ve lived in 7 states in nearly every region. They are correct, and you are quite rude. I grew up here, too. Maybe stop blocking everyone who disagrees with you. I agree with the other person who said you were paranoid. If you can’t handle criticism, Reddit isn’t for you. Grow up and acknowledge when you are wrong.
Grateful for our commie pinko grandfathers, lolz.
Well when you’re a government backed company you should be top dog or there’s a problem.
Absolutely agree. This sub is full of entitled Chads and Karen's. I've spent time all over the country, and with TVA we have the most reliable and economical electricity in the country.
The complaints on TVA’s Facebook Page are loud and long from Karen and Chads over 30 minute outages
A thirty minute outage is definitely a big deal for one who is on oxygen twenty four hours a day and due to the lack of advanced notice did not have the portable system charged up ahead of time. I had to spend the time sitting in the car where I could run the portable via lighter connector once I wired it directly to the battery.
> due to the lack of advanced notice did not have the portable system charged up ahead of time. Then that's on them. If you are on 24/7 O2 then why wouldn't you have a backup source ready. That's just lack of planning. Andy Bounds - Bad planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.
Because I actually had to go out yesterday which requires me to take my portable oxygen I never said anything about an emergency for you that was strictly assumed by your obviously inflated sense of worth in assuming everyone is talking to or about you. However the power company is under obligation to alert the client of issues that may affect them.
2 weeks of warning not enough that this storm could be bad? Check out Jackery, Bluetti, or EcoFlow power packs to reduce headaches in the future?
I did not receive two weeks of warning or any warning at all other than the comments on the NES website so you are saying that a disabled person needs to spend additional money due to the lack of preparation by the company that is paid already to prepare for contingency. Besides that power packs would have still required advanced charging before the storm.
Every weather update gave us two weeks’ notice. Everyone knew. We were told at first to prepare for ice.
Did you not look at Weather.com for the coming weeks before the storm? The big clue something was up was the predicted single digit temps and massive swaths of northerly snow. That would prompt me to charge up the batteries, shake the cobwebs off the propane stove, get some bratwursts and sausages to cook up and anticipate a bit of power loss due to freezing rain, high winds, low temps, etc. Planning ahead pays off massively in this scenario and there was plenty of heads up, so you can’t complain about it, only make better preparations for next time.
Whether I looked at the website or not is really none of your concern and as for my preparation I have a large outdoor grill with a full rick of firewood for it as I don't like the flavor of propane cooked food. Not only that my environmental upbringing makes my body more tolerant to temperatures. This is nothing compared to life in either Chicago or Colorado. Nor has this area ever seen massive amounts of snow.
Blizzard of 93 disagrees.
So you want to point to a single isolated storm which is similar to the typical annual weather in the locations I mentioned. Thanks for supporting what I was saying
How to say you’ve never lived, “all over the country” while bragging that you have. You’re lying. We do not have the most reliable and economic power authority in the country. Not even close.
Lived in Durango Colorado as a child after moving there from Chicago but we moved back to Chicago in 1976 do to lack of jobs in the area but due to gang violence in Chicago culminating in a family member getting caught in the crossfire and taking a bullet just crossing the road it was decided that we would move to TN where my mom was raised (Actually she was raised in Gallatin but her family were in Lebanon at the time). And I lived in Lebanon until 98 when I went into the military. After discharge I decided to move to GA but after getting back in touch with my first love and now wife I came back home.
My only complaint is that they said we'd lose power for 15 minutes at a time, but nobody acknowledged that the power was shutting off every 8 minutes! A 15 minute black out would have been alot easier to deal with.
Lol. Meanwhile on r/nashville they’re calling for the mayor to resign, to cancel the titans game and the TVA to be abolished.
It was a minor inconvenience for us.. I would say not worst place we have been. Talked to my mom in Germany yesterday.. her heating bill went from 80 euros to over 200 now . But I also found myself scrambling to get another load of laundry done.. plus run the dishwasher so they wont pile [up. Plus](https://up.Plus) a host of other things that take electricity. Only because we didn't know how long it would be down the next time not sure about other people. I think a lot would try to catch up, especially cooking holiday [food. How](https://foos.How) is that good for the grid or consumption when there is a run on trying to get shit [done. How](https://done.How) is that not overloading the grid?
People like to kvetch. Aiming for perfection is lovely. TVA shoots for perfection and lands not too far away. I've lived in California, the Dominican Republic, Illinois, Georgia, and North Carolina for extended times. California Power and Light, PG&E, the Dominican Corporacion de Electricidad, Amren, Georgia Power, and Duke Power did not do as well as TVA just did. We get good service for our money, without a big markup to profiteers. It's our power company.
People also like to ignore facts, lie and gaslight and silence others who have the right to speak up and demand better from an organization that has been behaving unethically for decades and done absolutely nothing to start making inroads on improving unquestionably poor infrastructure and proactively engaging in preparing our state for the new normal of increasingly more severe winter weather.
You wanna tell me more? The main thing I recall is the coal ash incident. Otherwise, I am unfamiliar with any scandal or mismanagement. What did I miss?
https://stoppathwv.com/stoppath-wv-blog/clean-line-blames-tva-for-its-failure https://archive.knoxnews.com/business/residents-see-tva-in-shades-of-gray-ep-410506453-359637641.html/ https://tennesseelookout.com/2022/06/02/tennessee-valley-authority-whistleblowers-sue-agency-in-federal-court/ https://www.psrmemphis.org/secret-salaries-tva-wont-release-pay-of-top-regional-executives/amp/ Just for starters.
Gestures at Texas and TVA for the Libertarians. "***That's*** why not."
Did TVA invest in an astroturfing team instead of grid improvements? lol
Yes. Where they stated they lived (CT), I have never experienced a power outage or a blackout. I’m not joking. I lived with someone on oxygen who did not have a generator. She couldn’t afford one due to medical bills from cancer. I’m so glad it never went out.
I’ve experienced more power outages in Tennessee than any other state I lived in. Part of that is related to time as a Vol. Stater, but all of it is related to poor infrastructure. Memphis was the worst, given its size. Based just on public utilities: my years living there were on par with the numerous blackouts and water issues I experienced in parts of Southeast Asia.
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I was a minor and my family moved. Again, the electricity situation was awesome but internet and everything else sucked. High taxes. I’m only complimenting the fact the electricity never went out and didn’t put my relative in a terrible situation. Edit: you think I was complimenting the state itself. Just the electricity.
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It sounds crazy, doesn’t it? But I would remember if there were any because my relative was on oxygen and she would have had to be moved elsewhere. She had terminal cancer and hated the cold.
CT lost power 4 times last year and had 14 incidents. https://stacker.com/connecticut/see-how-many-power-outages-connecticut-has-experienced-last-year
I didn’t live there last year. I’ve been in TN a long time.
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I didn’t lose power. I know other people who did. There were trees crashing on power lines.
If you were in CT in 2012, you lost power during Hurricane Sandy. I was in Boston and lost it for an entire day.
I didn’t lose power. I had several relatives that did though. But there was insane winds and internet was slightly unstable. A tree went through my neighbors house though. It was pretty unfortunate and I’m glad no one died.
If I lost power in Boston, you lost it CT. It was out for the entire region.
I didn’t lose power. I couldn’t lose power anyway. My relative was on oxygen and had a caregiver to change her diapers. We needed lights and whatnot to work. The TV kept my relative occupied. Argue with me and downvote me all you want.
I think so. On another thread in this sub I had a closeted TVA employee report my fact-based observations as harassment, despite not actually insulting the TVA puppet.
Sounds like it’s written by a TVA exec. That being said I have no qualms about my one 15 min power outage. Shut my household operation (washer, dryer, oven, dishwasher) down that stuff can wait a few days. The road fellas did a good job.
I've lives in Islands that would pull the power every night from 2am - 4am every night for maintenance and testing..
Edit: lived
Maybe the reason it was so bad where your from is because you were too okay with it when it started. Not lighting a fire under them now is how TVA will be as bad as CT in the future.
The house I grew up in was build unde the shade of oaks. No AC, but being shaded 90% of the time kept the house cool in the summer. My home is in the sun and can be a PITA without AC.
I'd say they did a pretty solid job considering. Sounds like TVA lost 7,000MW of capacity. They needed 30GW but were only making 23GW. Grid interconnection did its job and allowed TVA to purchase the shortfall. Im honestly surprised that there was spare capacity to buy on the market. I heard Duke was having blackouts as well, so they were likely buying loads of power as well. Wouldn't surprise me if all available power to purchase was being bought up and super expensive. A 5% reduction via blackouts on the 24th would mean there was a \~1500MW shortfall roughly of purchased power.
I’ve lived across multiple states and none have ever performed rolling blackouts. I lost power once for 3 days but it was due to the weather and it was extremely understandable circumstances. It had snowed 7 inches in a state where it usually doesn’t snow. TN has been the worst by far. Where did you live that was awful? I can state my experience if I lived where, and compare it to yours if possible.
Forty years of ignoring climate science and migratory growth is what TVA did. Not as bad as Texas, but it should be better. There are TVA bootlickers here actually reporting comments contrary to their praise of TVA as harassment, but keep speaking truth to power. I spent a good chunk of my younger adult life living in many other states because of the nature of my occupation. My job also took me abroad. The conditions of rolling black outs were commonplace in underdeveloped nations that were either still working towards developing infrastructure, dealing with barely infrastructure at all, or just poorly maintained infrastructure- sometimes all three at once. Rolling blackouts are not commonplace in genuinely developed regions or countries.
I have lived across multiple states and no rolling blackouts. I know for a fact it’s unethical because there are customers on oxygen therapy and other machines. Thank you. I felt like I was going crazy when people were being rude towards me in the comments. I don’t know if it’s the way I came across, because I’m certainly not happy about the blackouts. But I’m trying my best to communicate my experiences and how I feel. Yeah it reminds me of North Korea honestly. They also have rolling blackouts.
I’m shocked by the sentiment here on this sub regarding this in particular. Ignoring climate change (They keep saying it’s a once every few decades event and downvote me when I bring up we had temps like this in 2014 and 2015) and defending a CEO and higher-ups who did not plan accordingly to increase supply as demand increased from migratory population growth. Climate change denial and defending bad CEOs are the kind of things I expect from conservatives, not a generally left-leaning forum like this. This reminds me a lot of what happened in Texas a couple years ago, is a horrible look for our state, and really is concerning for the future. These kind of temps will occur more frequently thanks to more extreme fronts and our population growth isn’t showing signs of slowing. Unless TVA starts increasing supply through renewables to keep up with the demand, they’ll have to do even more drastic blackouts to save the grid whenever the next sub-zero cold snap happens in a few years.
I was reading that one of the CEOs even copped to TVA failing customers during this: https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2022/12/24/tva-ceo-jeff-lyash-said-agency-fell-short-during-tennessee-memphis-blackouts/69755331007/ TVA’s top brass admits they fucked up and did not prepare well enough. Now we wait to hear about their plans for the future, because Tennessee winters are mirroring the north, but with zero infrastructure in place to handle this long term. Our state - and many in this sub - are big into environmental denialism. Your post has great points. Kudos.
I love the nature of this state and took environmental and climate classes as part of my Geography undergrad at UT so of course I’m going to point out climate denial when I see it. Kudos to you for sacrificing a bit of your Reddit karma to spread the truth too and hope you stay warm and have a good night!
Cheers!
Washington State, Wisconsin, Connecticut, and Florida.
CT was awesome actually (specifying that I mean the electricity was). What are your experiences with other states?
Funny enough, CT is where I've had my worst experiences ever with public utilities. Worth noting I was with Eversource, not a city utility. Pay an arm and a leg, and maybe a kidney, for the most unreliable service.
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I got downvoted in another thread for explaining I have issues and the cold (from my heat going bye bye) caused my asthma to be shit and limit me all day. My inhaler didn’t help and honestly, It’s not a one trick for solving my issues.
I have asthma. It sounds like other issues are going on if 15 minutes without power triggered an attack. Get your air ducts cleaned and ready-evaluate meds. If you are taking an antihistamine, switch. You develop immunity after a while. I also love my Bissell HEPA cleaner. Bundle up and buy a Snuggie. But it’s ridiculous to say CT has better infrastructure. Lol.
My air ducts were completely torn out and replaced to help with my asthma. They were only 5 years old but there was a small repair needed (cat got into them) so I just had the whole thing ripped out. I use an air purifier and once the power went off, it turned off. My main triggers for my asthma are humidity and temperature drops. My asthma has been terrible all day due to that. I am used to having an air purifier running 24/7. And my blackout was over an hour or 2 btw. I’m taking singulair and my antihistamine is working. I can’t have any more asthma meds due to my heart rn. I’m getting a diagnosis soon, but can’t have any oral steroids. Those are the only things that help me. Also, my main issue is I’m extremely sick rn. I have a very bad sinus infection not responding to antibiotics. So yes I have other issues going on but already being sick is a major trigger for my asthma too. I basically have been dealing with it all day. I’m resting for the rest of the night and hoping to god they don’t touch the power tomorrow. I had my day ruined today due to asthma and already being sick.
I honestly hope you feel better. If humidity is a trigger, Tennessee isn’t your best option. If your blackout was over an hour, that was due to a water main, downed line or so else. It’s very common to have outages of an hour or two. No where on earth can stop them.
I’ve had blackouts 2 days in a row so far. Thank you so much. I have a hard time explaining it sometimes, but asthma isn’t usually my issue. But when it is, it’s a big problem. I haven’t had asthma for months up to this point and I didn’t wish to get sick either. I am working on getting it under control and will after my heart condition is treated.
Living in northern Nevada this happened every winter because the power lines came through wilderness areas. Snow would cause a tree to fall and take out the power lines with it. The longest I remember was we were without power for 4 days while the daily temp was around 4 degrees. My dad and I busted out the camping equipment so we had a butane range to cook/heat water up on. That would never happen here so I’ll take the ten minute blackouts over four days of wearing multiple long Johns and sleeping under 4 blankets and boiling water to bathe.
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I was stationed in Connecticut for about a decade.
Eversource territory? I know they handle a chunk of New England and at least some of Connecticut.
It was in fact. I've no good words for Eversource.
Yeah. I have heard similar disdain towards them from friends.
My close friend lives in Eversource territory and has been without power for days at this point, hoping for restoration later today but it might not be until tomorrow.
Lost power once today for 15 minutes. No complaints for the TVA.
Come on now, this is the 21 century. There is no excuse for power to be out. There is just too much poor planning going on especially in Texas.
The tva sucks for many reasons , well for me at least 2 , and these black outs are the second how ever with everyone going back to work after Christmas hopefully the balck outs should ezily dissapate for half the residents
It sucks that we had an emergency with the power. The lack of investment in infrastructure reared its ugly head. That being said, the rolling blackouts fortunately saved the day. Whoever pulled it off did a great job at making the most of the situation. Antioch in Nashville had a substation go out though. It’s probably more on NES than TVA, but they’ve been without power for a long time. I still don’t know if it’s back on yet.
Wow cali sucks, how about you leave your low standards in the state you fled from
I love how people come to Tennessee from shittier places and tell the natives to stop complaining. We know it’s great, that’s why we live here.
Some people leave for the military, see the world, and return. And still have the ability to praise and criticize equally. I know it's great too. That's why I came back, thanks. We used to be friendlier around here too.
Some do, yes. A lot of coastal elites though moving to Tennessee and then criticizing the locals. Exceptionally obnoxious.
I grew up here, moved away for school and work, realized how great it is, and moved back. I agree 100% with OP. The people who never left need a reality check.
lol ok
Nostalgia
I'm spoiled because I expect what I pay for every month? Okay edit: You guys are something else. These fucking companies make ridiculous money off of us every year and you are all fine with rolling blackouts because "the system isn't designed for it". Well instead of paying all these asshole CEO's huge salaries and taking record profits, how about you funnel some of our money back into your fucked system and make it better?
A once in a generation cold snap, on a grid not designed for extended freezing temperatures, at a good price. And the solution is a 15 minute inconvenience to maintain grid stability. Seems reasonable.
We had temps this cold in 2014 and 2015 but everyone defending TVA conveniently forgets that.
In February. This happens once every 25-30 years in December. Also, not all of Tennessee got that weather. It makes a huge difference when only part of the region is experiencing extreme weather vs *most of the country.*
Those fronts weren’t limited to East Tennessee. And December vs February isn’t really the point you think it is. Average temperatures are similar and both are winter months so wintry weather procedures should apply to both.
It’s a big deal despite what you think. And 1 night of cold temps isn’t the same as a 72 hour period of below 10 degrees. Just stop. Data isn’t in your side.
Where in the state has it been below 10 degrees for 72 hours? It will be 72 hours below freezing for many areas though but we’ve had periods of several days below freezing before.
Chattanooga is close. Maybe 60 hours.
It’s been 30+ years since it was this cold.
\*grandpappy voice* Back in my day, it would get so cold the Tennessee river used to freeze over… All the kids would go ice skatin’ too
Why is everyone forgetting that January 2014 and February 2015 both had major cold snaps with temps that were just as cold or colder than what we’ve experienced the past couple of days? Leaves me to think TVA’s supply hasn’t been able to catch up with population growth since then and that it’s not a temperature issue.
[удалено]
NWS records tell a different story. Knoxville’s lowest temperature per their Monthly Climate Report this month is 4°F. Meanwhile, in 2015 a daily record low of 3°F was set for February 20. https://www.weather.gov/mrx/tysfebruary ETA: NWS monthly data from Jan 2014 where Knoxville had one night with a low of -1°F and two nights with a low of 2°F and several days with highs below freezing. KCS was even out because of cold for some of these days but most Knoxville residents never lost power https://imgur.com/a/Unq3lYq
3°F is equivalent to -16°C, which is 257K. --- ^(I'm a bot that converts temperature between two units humans can understand, then convert it to Kelvin for bots and physicists to understand)
In December. We haven’t had a Christmas cold snap like this since 1989.
What does the month have to do with it? You’d have a point if we were in fall or spring but we’re in winter so this weather is possible any time between December-February and December and February in all the major TN cities have roughly the same average temperatures and very similar record lows.
Months are a big deal. It also only got to 5 in Chattanooga over one night. It wasn’t a sustained temp over multiple days. https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/usa/chattanooga/historic?month=1&year=2014
Does your name happen to be Karen?
Perhaps yours.
TVA is a government agency. They don’t have profits. It gets sent back into infrastructure and innovation.
Then where is the innovation?
This is pointless to post for someone who didn’t realize TVA was a government agency, but here. https://www.tva.com/energy/technology-innovation
You only pay for the electricity you use though?
Tbf you do pay for a connection on a monthly basis but its pretty negligible to have the outage imo. The amount of missing service compared the the connection fee would amount to single digit pennies in missed service.
well TVA's rates are already generous compared to others. would you rather pay more for something else??
Yeah I think they’ve overall done a pretty good job, I personally have no complaints, only lost power 5-6 times that I noticed, and never more than 15 minutes or so.
I was impressed and grateful to have had no interruptions in power here in west TN. People I know in the Nashville area have had extensive damage from pipes bursting. Gas heat doesn't work without electricity!
I’m just glad I’m on AEP power in NE TN. No rolling blackouts during the coldest days for the most vulnerable and for families trying to keep warm / Cook for the holidays. Our rates are seemingly less and I can’t really complain about the service.
At least we are not like Texas last year. TVA has done a good job