Richard Ducote: Count Us Lucky That Electricity is Back Online
Jul 13 - Arizona Daily Star
A short circuit a few weeks ago disrupted power service in Arizona, California, New Mexico and even Alberta, Canada.
The nation's largest nuclear power plant tripped offline June 14, causing
momentary panic for system operators and a brief loss of power to about 65,000
Arizonans.
About 35,000 customers in scattered pockets of the Tucson area were without
power for about an hour as the state's utilities scrambled to "shed
load" and prevent a disastrous regional outage.
The giant three-unit Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station 50 miles west of
Phoenix was running full-out and flawlessly that morning.
Several miles away, something happened to disturb a transmission line and a
few breakers failed to contain the short circuit.
Suddenly, Palo Verde was isolated from the grid and, for the first time, all
three units had to shut down at once. It took a few days for the plant, which
can supply 3 million homes with power, to restart.
The Western Electricity Coordinating Council, responsible for reliability
issues on the Western electric grid, reports that "the event began when a
bird contaminated an insulator" in the Phoenix area.
A detailed investigation of the incident is ongoing.
This week, Phoenix-area utilities were struggling to tamp down demand after a
switchyard fire limited system capacity.
State offices, large industrial plants and average residential customers were
cutting back lighting and raising thermostat settings to try to conserve power.
Now, wildfires around the state pose a constant threat to vital transmission
lines feeding urban areas from distant power sources.
It's a further reminder that the infrastructure that makes life possible in
this somewhat hostile environment takes investment and planning to succeed.
So far, it appears luck has been on our side.
JetBlue looking here
There has been speculation recently that Phoenix and Tucson are on the radar
screen for JetBlue Airways service.
The discount air carrier that offers free satellite TV to passengers is
constantly expanding its fleet and is moving to add smaller regional jets to its
system.
Alex Kovach, director of air service research and development at Tucson
International Airport, confirms that JetBlue is looking here.
The problem is that the company also is looking at about 100 other markets at
any given time.
Eventually, JetBlue probably will grace the skies of Tucson. This is a
greatly underserved market that is hungry for additional service, particularly
to Eastern destinations.
JetBlue would be a great complement to Southwest's strong Western service and
America West's Phoenix-centric schedule.
Siesta Bell
This just in: Reuters reports a small business startup in the Big Apple that
specializes in naps.
This is an old idea made new again. Siesta time used to be taken for granted
around these parts, especially before air conditioning.
New Yorkers are reportedly enthusiastic about "Metro-Naps," located
on the 24th floor of the Empire State Building and offering 20-minute power naps
in special "napping pods" for just $14.
Adjusted for cost of living, climate, elevation and cultural differences, I
think a local entrepreneur could make it work with ground-floor, 45-minute naps
in a dark strip center for, say, $6.50. Add a cold-pool plunge and an espresso
for just $5 more.
* Contact Richard Ducote at 573-4178 or rducote@azstarnet.com
.