Power outages | TheaterFire

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serranodad@reddit

LIGHTS OUT written by Ted Koppel!!!!! It's around 10 years old now, but still highly valuable. I can't recommend it enough!

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DwarvenRedshirt@reddit

Doesn't look like any widespread outages in the US. https://poweroutage.us/

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Ornery-Sheepherder74@reddit

What is the temp like there? AC usage?

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alienbabe98@reddit (OP)

Storm currently rolling in, but this power outage was a couple hours ago, power came back on roughly 45 mins ago before the stormz

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Utility companies are also developing emergency plans for wildfire mitigation. They will turn off the power to an area/region of there seems to be a potential for a fire or maybe some other major event. I’ve been getting a few emails from my electric company. Doesn’t sound like the case here but aware that outages could be more frequent.

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Successful-Mix5182@reddit

Is your provider Xcel Energy?

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alienbabe98@reddit (OP)

High 83, low 59. Currently at the high. I use my AC but not excessively, as it hasn’t been too terribly hot yet. The outage covered a decently sized portion of the north side of town.

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faco_fuesday@reddit

It's been fucking hot, dude. The power grid in Denverish was made to tolerate much less heat than the Midwest is currently experiencing.

Plan for this to happen more often.

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OneRingOfBenzene@reddit

Utility guy here. Sometimes regional transformers fail unexpectedly and are hard to replace. These might feed a rural county or a large town. While seeking replacement, utilities generally will use temporary backup substations or other less reliable means to power the area. This means that after the first failure, more failures are likely while the utility seeks a more permanent fix.

You should prep for outages like these, it's not uncommon. But, you should not assume that this is due to some looming nefarious threat or AI.

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songofthewitch@reddit

This was the explination that happened in Ohio last week too.

What makes a regional transformer more likely to fail? Do backup substations have an expected life for while they are useful, and is it common for utility providers to not replace them within the time what they are recommended to be replaced, or serviced even?

Asking as a First Energy customer.

Fuck First Energy.

(If you haven't already, watch Dark Energy, a documentary on HBO about how First Energy, our utility provider, spent 60 million dollars getting legislation pushed through to give them 1.5 BILLION in tax payer dollars to repair nuclear power plans. They wanted to repair the plants not to help the people of Ohio, but to sell them for a profit. Again, fuck First Energy.)

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throwAwayWd73@reddit

I'm going to have to watch that documentary.... They have other ones about them to because of

Northeast blackout of 2003 - Wikipedia https://share.google/RRT3xinXPQqLkcjGO

What makes a regional transformer more likely to fail?

Age and loading, potentially lack of preventative maintenance. Lots of equipment is getting old and at the end of life. It's expensive to replace and lead times are several years. Distribution is typically run to failure.

Most utilities have mobile substation transformers that can be installed to replace damaged equipment. Unfortunately these take time to get into position. During heavy loading like last week because of the heat dome equipment was more likely to fail.

At my company we have some mobiles that have been installed for years awaiting replacement of failed transformers, what's really fun is when you need to shuffle equipment around because the available mobile isn't big enough to go where your recent failure is.

Also when it fails, some of the adjacent substations are already close to their capacity leaving little room for transferring the load.

Oh and if it's a catastrophic failure where the transformer is ruptured and several thousand gallons of mineral oil leaks out, even more things can go wrong. Lots of testing to verify how much damage was done by the burning oil. That can't happen until the fire department gives the all clear.

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Particular_Topic211@reddit

I remember this power was out for days!!

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Adventurous-Woozle3@reddit

I would disagree. In Spain this happened two months ago and it was nefarious. This is how it started there.

They also tried the UK and successfully took out the power grid in two entire countries.

It could be normal. It could also really be a sign to be ready.

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awwaygirl@reddit

The Simpsons predicted a grid failure on June 30 2025!

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N1N4-@reddit

Thats crazy. Think i had the last power failure before 20 years maybe?

Why is this is not happen here in Germany?

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HolderOfFeed@reddit

Better infrastructure and a lot more power to draw from - CESA (Continental Europe Synchronous Area) is one of the largest electrical grids in the world

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Pando5280@reddit

Battery powered fans are a must. Also a decent power bank. You can find foldable solar panels on Amazon pretty cheap to power a small battery bank that you can use to charge your phone or tablet. I also try to keep some non-electrical games or activity books on hand, also keep my tablet charged so I can watch movies. Also important to have a gallon of water per person for each day you expect an outage to last. You can also use your camp stove to cook but granola bars and beef jerkey are good to have on hand. Lived far from take out for 10 years and had power go out for 2-3 days more than once.

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boomrostad@reddit

I've been looking at down detector a lot recently... there have been widespread outtages across the country since about February. They've seemed to become more frequent as time as gone on. Our 'absolutely never goes out' internet has gone out twice in the last four months.

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willwork4pii@reddit

Conspiracies kick in when multiple states lose power.

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willwork4pii@reddit

Are you in the heat wave? That kills transformers.

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Bikesexualmedic@reddit

r/disastro does a decent regular rundown of large scale power outages. The mod studies solar fluctuations and usually looks for any correlations. He’s pretty science oriented and not fear-mongery.

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Natahada@reddit

It’s a great sub! Definitely recommend. I follow the mod and have learned so much. They are not alarmists.

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alienbabe98@reddit (OP)

Thanks for the rec! Appreciate it!

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Due-Section-7241@reddit

Great sub!

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Low-Carob9772@reddit

Heat waves stressing systems everywhere. I was just in the mountains in north Georgia where people rarely use ac. Rolling brown outs during the day because the grid just can't handle the load. Happening in Texas as well

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AnomalyNexus@reddit

Power infra is routinely run till it breaks & sometimes they can reroute load to other substations. But if that's old too then the additional load can cause that to pop too. So you can easily get "when it rains it pours" situations

I wouldn't read too much into it unless there is reason to suspect something more nefarious

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FullyUndug@reddit

Listen, start planning for this to happen more often. I don't know the exact thing that's happening but there's more than one thing it could be and I don't wanna speculate yet. This will start happening everywhere soon. So it's best to learn how to live without now, just in case. Or you know get the stuff to make it better or comfortable enough, sooner rather than later.

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Longjumping-Bee1871@reddit

My theory is that the demand for electricity has gone up but the US has been lagging on bringing new sources of power generation online.

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throwAwayWd73@reddit

Worse, actively closing down coal and nuclear units that still have plenty of life left.

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sinkingduckfloats@reddit

I don't wanna speculate yet. This will start happening everywhere soon.

Doesn't you contradict yourself by speculating here?

Or do you have specific useful information to share that you're withholding?

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FullyUndug@reddit

I don't wanna speculate on the exact cause. But I know it's gonna happen more frequently, what ever the cause.

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sinkingduckfloats@reddit

So you are just speculating.

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BicycleNo69420@reddit

I have little animals in the house and last week during the heat dome in Massachusetts, I was anxious all day about the power failing and the window air conditioner shutting off. It was 106° and I have a feeling that is only the first of more. Definitely freezing a lot of ice packs for cages, at least they can lean against them if something does go wrong until I can get to them.

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FullyUndug@reddit

There are ways to cool a house, a little, without a/c. One way is opening two windows on opposite sides of each other, creating a draft. Make sure the intake window is wind facing. And you wet a bath towel and hang it securely on the window where the wind is blowing through it, not flapping. It doesn't make it cold but it will cool it at least a few degrees. I'm sure there may be some other ways I don't know.

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goddessofolympia@reddit

Gerbsters?

https://youtu.be/HB4S_Uzhpew?si=RPyZyJrujeN1C8_X

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BicycleNo69420@reddit

gif

No I got some of these nuts lol

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Goldfinch-island@reddit

Our infrastructure is finally collapsing. And no one is investing in it (right now). This is going to continue to happen

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alienbabe98@reddit (OP)

I totally agree with you. I’m not on a huge budget (lost my job recently, and job market is shit rn). But I’ve been starting with small things little by little- stockpiling my inhalers, epipens, portable Retekess radio solar powered & w/ manual crank, life straw, several 5 gallons of fresh spring or reverse osmosis water, & whatever food I can. I’m allergic to a lot of foods- including all grains, beans, nuts. So I’m a bit limited there, but trying to figure it out slowly.

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keep_living_or_else@reddit

Dried starches are probably a good friend for you: instant potatoes, rice, sugars and such--all will keep stable during prolonged outages given the right storage. Try to add more water if you can and think about solutions for treating water without any power--the high desert is a mf without hydration.

On another note: keep your head up w/r/t job market. The psychological prep is the most overlooked aspect of it all. Just know that you matter and that this isn't a fruitless endeavor. Best of luck with managing as you move forward.

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alienbabe98@reddit (OP)

I have to be careful w/ amounts and types of potatoes and rice I consume, but those are definitely going to be my go-tos! I guess jerky sticks as well…. Some dried fruits? I’m not sure yet since I’m on an extremely restricted diet due to my allergies. I mostly eat meat, veggies & certain fruit. 🙃 I’d love to get my hunting license tbh, but don’t think I’ll be able to.

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Unusual_Onion_983@reddit

If you own your house and your budget permits, installing a battery is good preparation. Offgrid with solar is ideal but upfront cost is painful and ROI is nearly a decade. I guess it depends on how much you’re willing to invest in preparation.

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Wonderful_Degree_431@reddit

AI data centers siphon off an ungodly amount of energy. The amount of electric cars has skyrocketed, up 64% in the last 5 years alone. Couple that with every year being hotter than the last resulting in increased energy demand for AC and there you have it. We keep adding demand to the grid and the power companies continue to spend zero on improving infrastructure. The only real solution is energy sovereignty through an off grid solar system.

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ohyeahwell@reddit

Solar is hardly viable with nem3 where we live. Also rebates expire soon bc magnate don’t believe in sustainable free energy.

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Leopold_Porkstacker@reddit

Bitcoin mining centers use more electric than small cities.

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Wonderful_Degree_431@reddit

It's true and in that region it is big business. Many of those operations run on their own sustainably generated energy but yeah it's another draw. Legalized cannabis as well.

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AcidiclyBasic@reddit

Is a giant data center being built near you by any chance?

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reddit1651@reddit

you just googled “colorado data center” and posted an article

that one won’t be opened until 2027. they haven’t even selected a contractor yet lol

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AcidiclyBasic@reddit

From the article

Zoom in: At least 39 data centers are presently operating in the Denver metro area.

Four are owned by Lumen Technologies; 35 by other companies.

lol

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missbwith2boys@reddit

We had two last week, one due to an unfortunate lightning strike on a local substation. The other one was a failure of a transformer.

Both times I was sitting in my home office working, only to have my screen go blank. Reminded me that I needed to load some extra work on my laptop.

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SquirrelyMcNutz@reddit

Get yourself a couple of battery UPS setups. I've got two, a larger one that covers my PC, tv, and game consoles and a second for my modem/router. They won't last forever, but they're great for giving you time to safely shut down your systems without worry for blackouts or power surges.

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WloveW@reddit

I like how your mind is on safely shut down.

His mind is on load more work.

Your mind is more calm.

Despite the squirrel.

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Slow_Tap2350@reddit

You’ve also had a heat wave.

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ohyeahwell@reddit

I live in Northern California and we’re subject to random extended power outages called “PSPS” events.

I recommend a Honda generator, maybe the $200 Tri-fuel adapter, and a solar generator. I have 100W panel going to a nice EcoFlow, and a portable fridge. The panel/battery/fridge combo can run indefinitely.

I use the gas generator for our large fridge, freezer and on-demand hot water heater.

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Dildomancy@reddit

We had a very unusual power outage in Pittsburgh a few months ago. It around 5-6 am in the morning on a weekend in clear weather. All of a sudden the lights started violently flickering with horrible electrical noises and loud booms for about a minute culminating with the power going out entirely. I genuinely thought my home's electrical system was crapping out because I had never experienced a power outage like this in my life. According to the electric company's outage tracker and Reddit, this violent outage happened across most of the city. A lot of Redditors reported hearing the same horrible noises that I heard, and experiencing the same confusion I did thinking that it was a home electrical issue rather than a normal blackout.

Now here's what weirds me out. You'd think a strange power outage like this affecting a major American city would make the local news at least. Surely thousands of Pittsburghers would like to know just what the heck happened. But...nothing. Nothing from the media, not a statement from the electric company, not even a tweet from the local government. Nothing. To this day, I suspect it was kind of national security situation where they're all under gag order not to talk about it.

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kl2342@reddit

It's probably nothing. That said, your best bet is always to build resilience into your routine. Personally I think disruptions to public utilities are less a matter of if than when. Some context:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJM5zG9XhZ8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9BxH8N9dqc (learned SO MUCH from this video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fREagrzoUY

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WebFit9216@reddit

Weird. In Indiana, same story. City has said they don't have an answer yet.

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AcidiclyBasic@reddit

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/24/technology/amazon-ai-data-centers.html

Where in Indiana?

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Kjs1108@reddit

We’ve had an odd amount of power outages here in north east Ohio. I thought is was kinda strange but now hearing it’s happening elsewhere really peaks my interest.

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gavs10308@reddit

TX power guy here, the heat is bad on transformers and equipment. When you overload something generally it over heats. Couple this with high summer temps and it leads to failure. Overloading something in the winter time when it’s 0° mother nature is helping by cooling everything so less failures.

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mysticeetee@reddit

This is what it's like living in a failing state. Give it a few years of continued non-investment in infrastructure and we'll have power and water only at certain times or days. This is common throughout the world in countries that are barely holding it together.

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tkdjessica@reddit

NC yesterday between Greensboro and Raleigh-Durham

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NorthRoseGold@reddit

Rolling outages due to ac use.

You live in a bad area-- either too hot or shitty grid or both.

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Pontiacsentinel@reddit

MidAtlantic area. Electric has been out 9 times since May for 2 and up to 11 hours each. It does not seem a good sign.

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Expensive_Watch_435@reddit

Reminds me of the intentional Optic Fiber cable damage over here in Kc. We had a power outage too

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agentcooperforever@reddit

Happening in Cleveland too

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Cantquithere@reddit

Feels like a good place to mention that you all have pissed off 🇨🇦 lately so...

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leadretention@reddit

Get ready for the 4th and 5th of next month.

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RaddishAssocation@reddit

That’s a big 10-4

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hanumanCT@reddit

Where's this, wheat ridge or arvada? I'm in North Denver, while it's been hot as heck and stormy, power here has been incredibly stable. I can't remember my last outage.

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alienbabe98@reddit (OP)

Longmont

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TaviRUs@reddit

Did you check with Xcel? They sometimes list a small cause on the outage site when it happens.

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PNWoutdoors@reddit

I'm roughly in your area, been here for about 5.5 years and fortunately no power outages yet. Despite that, I have two dual fuel generators, three power stations, and a bunch of solar panels.

By the way I'm currently trying to sell one of my dual fuel generators as I've moved more towards solar for a few reasons.

Send me a DM if you're interested.

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Heith12@reddit

Any AI data centers nearby? I have heard those things are nightmares from grid operators?

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alienbabe98@reddit (OP)

I’m not far from Boulder, and I believe they do. But I’ve not heard of any outages in a Boulder or the towns immediately surrounding today, only in my neck of the woods.

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Sleaxor@reddit

I'm just outside of Boulder as well. From what I can tell, based on when the power shut down 2-3 days ago occurred, it might have been a sudden turn on of AC that spiked it, though what customer or what customers caused it, I'm not sure yet. It is a bit unusual, but Xcel hasn't always been the most reliable of providers in this area, unfortunately.

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wondering2019@reddit

Happening in rural, lower nw GA not right now, but yesterday, and three other times in recent months for 3-8 hrs

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biggesthumb@reddit

Get used to it!!!

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alienbabe98@reddit (OP)

Been prepping for this to the best of my (26F) ability. Just curious where else these outages are occurring. Seen different posts just browsing, but wanted to post here!

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alienbabe98@reddit (OP)

I am not. I have power thru the city.