We had a pretty good coating of ice last night through this morning, and
both the single and three phase went out at my shop by early afternoon
(the 110 lines were still reading 32v). Around 10:00 PM I went by the
shop to see if it was back on yet, but no luck. As I was leaving the power
company truck came by and I walked down to the corner where they
parked to see how things were looking.
They pulled a few sections of pole out of the truck, screwed them
together and pointed it up to the transformers. While one fellow stood
back at the corner and watched, the other proceeded to whack the
transformer with his pole. Two quick taps and all the lights up and down
the street came right on. They put the pole back in the truck and drove
off.
On one hand I really wish everything were this easy to fix. On the other,
if this is the level of sophisication with which our power grid operates it's
no wonder it breaks down so often.
