https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/13/asia/sri-lanka-power-outa...
I saw a video the other day of some human running and jumping on a transformer after hopping a fence, dancing on the transformer in a distribution site.
It ended as you'd expect, a bright light, a lot of curse words from the camera operator who was probably blinded temporarily.
Electricity does not care.
Nor does Darwin
I can't believe and I'm horrified someone actually published such a video.
Trying to stay on the facts, this incident is likely accidental but some people even the very workers at energy companies could send a message for, I don't know. A pay raise?
Yes, you can try to hold the country hostage for your salary by going on strike, but that's the sort of thing that results in very energetic union-busting.
Actually sabotaging the infrastructure would result in terrorism charges, or at the very least the JSO treatment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore_County_substation_attack
Unsolved to this day.
Not that type of hospital.
The low-wage workers can get triple-time and take weeks off "later in the year" for covering the stop-loss, so they also benefit.
I don't call fire fighters, because they are emergency responders. Please note i said what i do, not what i think other people should do. The people i tell this to are free to do with that information what they want, i don't demand it or anything.
Consider this a contextual error on my part. It's more of an "inside baseball" snippet of conversation than anything that requires judgement.
A tree falling can be addressed by vegetation management and trimming. A power line sagging because of excess heat is operator error.
These are not remotely the same.
I hate this term, and look forward to using it all the time.
As you have identified A wider right of way costs more.
Usually for lines above some voltage, perhaps 200kV, the cost of an outage due to a tree strike outweighs the cost of additional vegetation management so they will clear the right of way wide enough that no tree can fall and hit the power line.
Around here for 130kV the right of way is still as narrow as it can be and we annually take down the riskiest trees as this is the best for our budget, which is not unlimited.
They go through and remove damaged trees near the easements of the highway lines, as well as branches that could break into lines.
As an aside we lived on the same section of grid as the sheriff, and our power was rock solid for a few years, then he left office and now our power is better than average (at least better than our neighbors who's power line cones from the other direction).
Residential distribution voltage varies by utility but it’s usually in the medium voltage range, 5kV to 35kV, with 13.8kV being common.