There would always be a risk any backup systems fail. As another commenter pointed out, in other countries it would be illegal to cut power like that for that kind of reason. And that’s a good thing. Power is literally keeping people alive and shouldn’t be turned off because it seems mean to leave it on.
But a better point is, no one discussing this knows what downstream effects could happen if they killed the power. Seems kind of crazy to me to pretend we do.
I do not follow the logic of people being so blinded by their love of cats that they literally think they can become electrical grid engineers and know all the risks, just because they want to know them.
It does not matter if every single vulnerable building has backups and tested them yesterday (obviously none of that could ever be close to true), it’s still a non-zero risk to human lives, for one cat.
It’s amazing because electrical grids are designed to be able to have sections shut down at any time. The intended purpose is literally to prevent a catastrophic shutdown.
Imagine pompously stating that your suggestion is somehow more logical on the basis of 1) there’s a good likelihood you aren’t an electrical engineer and 2) that there’s some kind of genuine risk here (because apparently this guy thinks the whole lynchpin to the fucking grid happens to be this exact pole).
Dunning Kruger, at its finest. Glad to see you still have your head on straight.
The cat isn’t part of the equation, I gave no opinion on that. The risk of never testing your failure response is much higher than the risk of testing your failure response.
If a test happens to save a cat? Lucky cat. If not, they’ll still have to test it at some other point anyway.
If their back up system fails then it’s their fault for not keeping it up to date. Seriously, my husband is an engineer who designs these battery systems. They do not “fail” if they are maintained and replaced properly.
We’ve got the Lemmy/Reddit worldview out in force. We should shut down vital infrastructure, risking life safety of many, for a cat. I say this loving cats: that’s silly.
Yeah, I knew when I commented it might get some backlash, but the strength of it is somewhat depressing. Isn’t Lemmy supposed to be mostly rational intelligent people?
I guess it just tells us how commonplace it is for people to declare a risk either worth it or non-existent without a fucking clue about the actual risk they are talking about.
In any case, thank you for demonstrating that there are still some sane people left out there.
Just adding that these operations are federally regulated to remain in operation. They likely don’t even have the choice if they can’t justify the liability.
Lol, I was an electrical product investigator/inspector for 15 years. I’ve dabbled in being a pariah of sorts. But thanks for the heads up! A level head is a balm these days.
I guess by not turning it off they risked people being electrocuted and possibly result to a brownout within the area, seeing how eventually resulted to bystanders attempting to rescue the cat and a bad PR.
Personally I think it’s just a lapse in risk analysis on the electric company.
Has anyone considered that turning off the power might not even be possible without turning it off at hospitals and other critical locations…?
Critical locations like hospitals have backup generators.
deleted by creator
Say what you mean: “I do not care what is true because what I want to happen is way more important”.
Or “your claim 8s unlikely and would have been the reason given by Xcel if true”
all critical locations have huge DC batteries specifically design to take over during a short outage. Then generators.
There would always be a risk any backup systems fail. As another commenter pointed out, in other countries it would be illegal to cut power like that for that kind of reason. And that’s a good thing. Power is literally keeping people alive and shouldn’t be turned off because it seems mean to leave it on.
But a better point is, no one discussing this knows what downstream effects could happen if they killed the power. Seems kind of crazy to me to pretend we do.
A backup system that isn’t tested regularly is not a backup at all, just the illusion of one.
If you can’t turn the power off with 24h notice then nature will turn it off with zero notice at the most inconvenient moment.
They should indeed do regular tests of their backups. They should also ensure technical staff is on-site during those tests.
I do not follow the logic of people being so blinded by their love of cats that they literally think they can become electrical grid engineers and know all the risks, just because they want to know them.
It does not matter if every single vulnerable building has backups and tested them yesterday (obviously none of that could ever be close to true), it’s still a non-zero risk to human lives, for one cat.
deleted by creator
It’s amazing because electrical grids are designed to be able to have sections shut down at any time. The intended purpose is literally to prevent a catastrophic shutdown.
Imagine pompously stating that your suggestion is somehow more logical on the basis of 1) there’s a good likelihood you aren’t an electrical engineer and 2) that there’s some kind of genuine risk here (because apparently this guy thinks the whole lynchpin to the fucking grid happens to be this exact pole).
Dunning Kruger, at its finest. Glad to see you still have your head on straight.
deleted by creator
It is a sentiment that treats potential loss of life like rounding errors instead of tragedies (big and small).
Tolkien’s words live in my brain
Damn, now i want to see them comments
Sure go ahead and assume I want the cat to die. Which I didn’t. What the fuck.
The cat was rescued apparently anyway.
deleted by creator
The cat isn’t part of the equation, I gave no opinion on that. The risk of never testing your failure response is much higher than the risk of testing your failure response.
If a test happens to save a cat? Lucky cat. If not, they’ll still have to test it at some other point anyway.
I never remotely commented that backup systems shouldn’t be tested. Bizarre.
No you’re just trying to suggest that a test can’t be pushed up because you hate cats.
Unless you genuinely just do not understand what they mean, which is likely.
Since you’re going to assume the worst possible reading, I will assume projection on your part.
If their back up system fails then it’s their fault for not keeping it up to date. Seriously, my husband is an engineer who designs these battery systems. They do not “fail” if they are maintained and replaced properly.
Patently absurd. Technology often fails regardless of what you do. Inviting that failure would be negligence and should be illegal.
The one thing I know for sure about any engineer is that we are intimately familiar with the concept of things failing when it’s least convenient.
We’ve got the Lemmy/Reddit worldview out in force. We should shut down vital infrastructure, risking life safety of many, for a cat. I say this loving cats: that’s silly.
Yeah, I knew when I commented it might get some backlash, but the strength of it is somewhat depressing. Isn’t Lemmy supposed to be mostly rational intelligent people?
I guess it just tells us how commonplace it is for people to declare a risk either worth it or non-existent without a fucking clue about the actual risk they are talking about.
In any case, thank you for demonstrating that there are still some sane people left out there.
deleted by creator
I want going to be so forthright, but nail on head.
Apparently, yes.
Just adding that these operations are federally regulated to remain in operation. They likely don’t even have the choice if they can’t justify the liability.
Careful, a bunch of downvotes and nasty comments probably are coming your way despite there being a good reason for such regulations.
Lol, I was an electrical product investigator/inspector for 15 years. I’ve dabbled in being a pariah of sorts. But thanks for the heads up! A level head is a balm these days.
I guess by not turning it off they risked people being electrocuted and possibly result to a brownout within the area, seeing how eventually resulted to bystanders attempting to rescue the cat and a bad PR.
Personally I think it’s just a lapse in risk analysis on the electric company.