Quote:
Originally Posted by BCPhil
And on top of that, you expect everyone to go out and blow their wad on generators? Just a generator to power some lights and a TV costs over $1000. For a Generator to power commercial fridges for a business, you are looking at over $10,000 just to entertain the idea (probably more like 10 times that for a proper solution). Not every business, even big ones, can cover that cost. Some businesses can't afford to be off the grid for 2 minutes, so the spend on backups is worth it (as small outages are common), but how often is someone in a built up urban area without power for over 48 hours?
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I expect that businesses will perform adequate risk assessment.
If you live in your own house with it's own well and septic system, you are 100% responsible for dealing with any natural disaster, regardless if your house is on a hill, the foot of a hill, or in the flood plain. Expecting the power to stay on and power a dozen fridges full of hunted food or beer is an overly optimistic risk assessment.
Someone who lives in a 600sq foot condo or apartment with no balcony and is for some damn reason is operating all their websites off their home internet connection also has an overly optimistic risk assessment.
The problem with both of these locations assuming the power will never go off for more than 5 minutes, is that the people occupying these premises are not prepared, at all, for any kind of inconvenience.
If you operate a business at home, you spend 1000$ on UPS. If you have thousands of dollars in computer equipment, you would wouldn't put it in an apartment in the first place, you'd store it at a data center where they do have generators (not that it isn't possible to have
the generators fail due to bad engineering.)
Likewise the person out in the boonies who doesn't want to loose thousands of dollars in food or other products would have a generator. To do otherwise is to accept that risk.
Like I said, the angle of the news reports is tried to frame a story of "BC Hydro is to blame" for losses when the combination of wind storm and dry summer is. Trees that may have been planted over 30 years ago fell over. If you live in BC, wind and rain are predictable several days in advance.
Nobody has any right to be mad at BC Hydro for losing business. That is poor risk taking on the part of the business owner.
The people who lost a few hundred dollars in food and couldn't flush the toilet for 3 days... that's a minor inconvenience, and should be covered by home owner/renters insurance. No insurance? That's again a risk willingly accepted.
Anyway I'm not entirely without sympathy for those who lost power, I just find the news media fishing for a story that just isn't there a poor excuse to dump on BC Hydro and by extension the Provincial government.