I'm glad that the hurricane wasn't too bad for you personally.
Professionally, I occasionally have been tasked with disaster planning, and I do take issue with the POCO comment. In my view, the Texas PoCos are most certainly responsible for poor line maintenance, and preparedness. I do recognize that ERCOT has made the power issues in Texas worse than they need be, but that is not the whole issue. Texas is a hurricane prone area, so at a minimum there are tree trimming recommendations to get trees far enough from lines not to fall on power lines. Flying debris is a different issue, but one that can be mitigated by undergrounding the power lines. If you like your tree lined neighborhoods, put the wires out of the way. It is not rocket science.
That CenterPoint PR video above is a case in point. The tree that the power pole became entangled with was only a few feet away from the pole, and the pole itself was clearly in poor condition. (I.e. should have been replaced.)
There are some areas in the world that do better with hurricanes. Even Florida has some helpful building requirements in their building code. Unfortunately, Texas isn't a role model in my book for disaster planning or response. I do use Texas events as case studies for others to learn from as I think that there is a lot to be learned, starting back at the Galveston hurricane. I just wish folks would learn from the experiences, and not repeat history. I hate to see folks suffer needlessly.
I have similar thoughts and feelings about living in earthquake / wildfire / flood / tornado regions and not taking at least some precautions there as well.
All the best,
Peter
I won't argue that there are things that the POCOs could have done better. There are always things that could have been done better in just about any industry.
For the record, prior to retirement, one of the things the company I owned provided was assistance with disaster planning, with a heavy emphasis on hurricane disaster. We were right on the coast, which presents additional challenges, mostly regarding storm surge and higher winds.
My point is that there is only so much you can do that is practical cost-wise and within the scope of what the POCO can address. Vegetation management on right of ways is absolutely a must, and there is definitely a lot of room for improvement there. But I have seen firsthand that much of the damage to the lines came from downed trees which were not on the right of way. Those trees, outside the purview of the POCO, are the responsibility of the property owner. I'm not talking about the power line from the street to your house, which are always a problem. I'm talking about large trees close to transmission lines causing damage. We had a ton of those over the several counties serviced by our co-op. One of the things that impacts this is the length of time between storms. For much of this area it had been nearly 20 years since the last serious hurricane. Without a storm to thin out the weak trees you end up with an area ripe for disaster as those weak trees give up and uproot or snap off. The same thing happened when Rita came in in 2005 and we had serious power outages from tree damage even 150 to 200 miles north of the coast. Then Ike came through in 2008 and yeah, we had serious storm surge. I was on the coast then and saw the water damage firsthand. But the wind damage was much less, because Rita had already cleared many of the weak trees.
Another factor that often is not considered is the sheer size of Texas. We're 1.65 times larger than California and if you're using Florida for comparison we're almost five times larger. The greater Houston area alone is over 10,000 sq miles. That's larger than some states and a hell of a lot of urban infrastructure to manage and protect.
Putting everything underground is not a practical option. I'm not going to get into all that for this conversation, but anyone who thinks it is should do a little research into all the problems you will encounter.
It all comes down to risk management. When doing risk assessments, we try to determine risk likelihood, potential damage, and risk mitigation. Likelihood is not even a question. It's going to happen so the chances are 100%. So it comes down to potential damage and options for mitigation. Simplified, that means what is it going to cost to fix it versus what would it take to protect against it. From there it's a balancing act because the cost to completely protect everything is well beyond anything we could afford.
Could the POCOs and the co-ops do a better job? Absolutely. Have they been intentionally negligent across the board? I don't think so. I think they have worked within the budget and constrictions they have and tried to do the balancing act. Sure, you know there is some greed and corruption here and there, just like any industry and all of politics. But overall, with the scope of services provided and the resources available to provide them, I think they have done a fair job.
I hear a lot of complaining but what I don't hear much of is specific solutions and now to finance those solutions.
My two cents, and it's not my intention to offend anyone. Just provide some perspective.
