[andreyk]

Am a Stanford PhD Student, can confirm this is kind of a big deal. At 2 30 yesterday I was in the middle of a zoom call in the CS building, and suddenly the lights went off (except emergency lights)and wifi died. I walked 25 over to my place on campus, and likewise no power or wifi. Some common spaces do have light via backup gas powered generators, though.

Pretty crazy it's already been 24 hours and it might go on for days, and hard not to feel this is a portent of more such disruptions to come as summers will keep getting higher and higher peak temperatures over the coming decades...

[bushbaba]

I wouldn't be so quick to blame PGE's lack of maintenance on global warming. The PGE lines by me are nearing 75 years old. Electrical poles just doesn't last 100s of years and it is nearing it's end of life.

EVs, Heat Pumps, and Electric Stoves only put additional pressure on an antiquated grid.

[Fatnino]

I blame their lack of upgrading the grid or even performing trivial routine maintenance.

Do you know that ~all of Palo Alto can be knocked offline by breaking one line? This line happens to be under the flight path at the airport in the baylands and it got hit by a plane before. Whole city, no power, whole day. In the intervening years was an auxiliary line into the city built? What do you suppose?

[bushbaba]

Most of SF's water and power also is under that flight path. PAO should be shut down as it's an environmental disaster and has caused lead poisoning to the surrounding community.

[Fatnino]

The lead is in all avgas. The solution there is for the FAA to allow unleaded avgas, not to shut down all aviation.

PAO used to be located on what is now El Cameno a couple blocks north of Page Mill. Between Stanford Ave and Serra St. The area is called Escondido Village today.

Eventually more and more people moved near there despite knowing there was a noisy airport there first. Then they complained about noise and caused the airport to relocate to its current baylands location.

[bushbaba]

PAO is technically on wetlands and was moved to its location because at the time the black community nearby didn’t get a say in San Mateo’s planning.

The same black community who was not allowed to buy a house in Palo Alto.

https://paloaltoonline.com/news/2020/06/28/un-forgetting-the...

[Fatnino]

https://www.pastheritage.org/Articles/AMEZionMF.html

You mean this black community inside Palo Alto 3 blocks from downtown?

Your link opens with an anecdote that takes place on "the east side of Palo Alto". This is what people who don't know the area think when they hear the name of the city of East Palo Alto. The city that clearly sits to the north not the east of Palo Alto.

[mc32]

Didn't Stanford have a Cogen facility there? I think they greenified the original GE plant. But does it not supply some needs or did they completely cut the cord?

[etrautmann]

I believe there used to be one, but it got knocked down to build the new Neuroscience / Chem-H building on campus drive? I thought they put auxiliary backup power system in as part of the hospital expansion, but it might only cover the hospital?

[mc32]

Oh, Ok, that makes sense. I didn't realize they didn't replace the generation capacity elsewhere --but yeah the hospital would take precedence over university operations.