On 12/26/19 10:19 AM, Jason Wilson wrote:
As a small WISP operator in Northern California and well into the
urban interface we fell victim to the PSPS this year. Thousands was
spent on upgrading battery plants that would normally hold during a
short outage and generator purchases, whether it be small inverter
style generators for small sites to permanent standby site generators
for those sites that are larger or a PITA to get to. We still have
more work to do and hope to be better prepared for next summers rounds
of shut offs. I am currently developing a portable trailer mounted
solar/battery plant to replace the portable generators just for fuel
cost savings since I spent just about $500/week in generator fuel
alone for the largest outage.
Yeah, that's the biggest change: the outages are 2-3 days each. Maybe
they'll get better but their stated goal is to inspect the entire
distribution system before turning power back on, so that is going to
take some time no matter what.
And the fuel cost is definitely a consideration. Unfortunately October
and November is pretty lousy for solar. Wind might be better since that
is the reason they're doing the PSPS in the first place :)
Mike
