wrf@mab.ecse.rpi.edu (Wm Randolph Franklin) (03/16/91)
In article <telecom11.197.5@eecs.nwu.edu> CER2520@ritvax.isc.rit.edu (Curtis E. Reid) writes: > Front page headline: > "RG&E admits it erred" >Subheadline: "Utility underestimated ice's toll" Funny, that's the same thing that Niagara Mohawk said when Albany NY was hit by an ice storm on Oct 4 a few years ago. We had no power for 56 hours, which was about average; some had none for a week. It took the power company several days to realize what had hit them. The Rochester situation sounds much worse than ours though. By the way, you can't trust the power company spokesman about when the power has been restored. A NiMo spokesman once told our local newspaper that another blackout had been fixed by such-and-such a time. Funny, my lights were still off then. After the {Albany Times Union} published my letter of complaint (August 3, 1989) the spokesman sent me a full page letter saying that when he had talked to the paper the blackout had been in principle almost completely as good as fixed, so he had said that it was fixed. Sounded like PooBah in the Mikado explaining that when the Mikado ordered something done, it was as good as done, and so they said that they had done it, though they hadn't. Please note that these incompetent power companies are all monopolies. The only way to express dissatisfaction is to buy a generator, which many people have done, or go to cogeneration if you're big, which RPI is considering. If monopoly status would give the phone company better disaster recovery capabilities, why doesn't this apply to power companies? An RPI prof has patented a natural gas powered heater and cogenerator designed for homes with gas but no power. It's the obvious solution, and is thermodynamically efficient, but I don't know its commercial status. Wm. Randolph Franklin Internet: wrf@ecse.rpi.edu (or @cs.rpi.edu) Bitnet: Wrfrankl@Rpitsmts Telephone: (518) 276-6077; Telex: 6716050 RPI TROU; Fax: (518) 276-6261 Paper: ECSE Dept., 6026 JEC, Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst, Troy NY, 12180