Power failures add up to too many lost minutesWe have lived in Hill Valley since 1969, where over the years we used to have a decent electrical distribution service through Indianapolis Power & Light. The service has degraded slowly over the past few years, to the point it is now unacceptable.
Recently, we had two power failures for approximately 15 minutes each. Yet, this is not the worst problem as we experience on the average two to three power failures weekly for a fraction of a second in most cases. This means resetting time and alarm to a half dozen digital clocks, the water softener, the Malibu light, the weather station, time and temperature to the Jacuzzi. It takes over an hour's work as resetting time on digital equipment is more difficult and time consuming that it used to be with analog equipment.
I understand such difficulties might be justifiable during an electrical storm, but this is not the case.
It is time for IPL to shape up for the good of its customers.
John H. Renault
Indianapolis
You're blaming the wrong people.
First off, the fact that a power failure affects things like your digital clocks and the timer on your Jacuzzi (I feel your pain) suggests that you either haven't installed or checked the backup batteries lately, or (in the case of clocks that don't have backups) you need to install some kind of power protection, like a small computer UPS. (I have one on our main TV installation, for instance, and every computer in the house is on a UPS.)
Corollary to the above, consumers need to start bitching to manufacturers who skimp by not bothering to add a cheap lithium battery backup to their electronic panels. The fact is that you shouldn't have to reset the clock on your stove if the power happens to glitch. But since power is going to glitch whether you like it or not, the burden falls on manufacturers. And yes, I would pay a few dollars more for this feature, which should be standard on all electronic equipment.
Secondly, understand the concept of the electrical infrastructure. You moved into your neighborhood in 1969. Hill Valley appears to have been built in the late '50s or early '60s. That means that the relatively-new electrical infrastructure you moved into is now nearly 50 years old. That also means that IPL probably is doing a lot of work improving the infrastructure as parts of it wear out. In order to do that kind of work, sometimes they have to turn the power off. You can't replace a transformer or a circuit breaker, for instance, without cutting power to folks downstream of it. That probably accounts for the 15 minute outages you've noticed. Hell, we had one here about three weeks ago -- and I'm not bitching.
The little momentary glitches are probably due to surges, or overcurrent and short-circuit protection kicking in (think branches falling across lines, for instance, or ice causing short circuits, or even the wind making your service drop sway -- in which case IPL should be called to take a look at it). Again, not much you can do about that but live with it.
Thirdly, the fact is that people are using a lot more electricity today than they did back in 1969. I'm guessing that very few homes in your neighborhood had central air conditioning when you moved in. I'm guessing further that nearly all of them do now. Homes that were built with 60 or 100 amp service are being upgraded to 200 amps all the time. All of that puts more burden on a system that wasn't really designed for that.
Having worked in the electrical business in Indy for many years before (and while) going to college and becoming a software engineer, I know that the IPL linemen do good work and try as best they can to minimize downtime. It's not feasible for them to warn people ahead of time if they have to pull a transformer or do some other kind of work that necessitates shutting the power off. The fact is that you don't modernize the existing infrastructure overnight, so electric power customers need to take their own measures to keep from having to reset their Jacuzzis.
I'm not advocating buying a whole-house generator (although I find it interesting that Lowes and Home Depot now carry full lines of same), but having battery backups to handle short outages just makes sense to me. Besides that, most battery backups do surge protection, too, and it absolutely makes no sense to have sensitive electronic equipment sitting bare-naked on an unprotected line. I've seen the voltage here at the house run the gamut from 114 volts to 125 volts depending mostly on the time of day (my two main UPSes have voltmeters on the front panel). Even though most electrical equipment is rated from 110-125 volts, big voltage swings like that are hard on it.
To sum up: Stick a sock in it, Mr. Renault, and take some proactive measures to keep from being affected by the problem. My heart does not bleed for you.
