[gopalv]

> those rates amortize and distribute the cost of storm recovery

Not exactly when it is a farm out there away from a town.

My experience is from a different era (90s) and a different kind of farm, but I spent a bunch of summers in one, which had power outages whenever the monsoons picked up.

The trouble was that there was a single line feeding the farm from about 6km away, so if that went down a single farmowner complained - the rate payers who were in a denser urban area always got priority, because there were 600+ people who shared a transformer.

The generator ran a lot when winds knocked power out, but the generator only ran when there was a big power need like running the well pumps or one of the winnowing mills. Even the winnower had pedals, because work doesn't stop.

Every bathroom had a light with a 30 minute battery in it, which came on when the power went out - I guess if they had LEDs those same batteries would be 6 hour lights.

They would have killed for solar + storage, because shipping fuel in for the generator was one of those annoying things you had to keep doing over and over again.

[p_j_w]

>The trouble was that there was a single line feeding the farm from about 6km away, so if that went down a single farmowner complained - the rate payers who were in a denser urban area always got priority, because there were 600+ people who shared a transformer.

The urban rate payers also subsidize the rural ones, so it makes sense that they'd be front of the line.

[devilbunny]

I would have thought an isolated farm would have had propane on site - likely more than one tank.

I don’t worry about outages much in my current home because the main line to ~1000 houses goes right past me, and I’m fed straight from it. If I’m out, it’s a very high priority line. Worst ever was about two days. It helps that our worst storms are usually in spring, so weather is mild.