Power Outages – You don’t have to live with them

“Power Outages: you don’t have to live with them,” by Charlotte Wilson, first published by Opednews.com on Jan. 6, 2010.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Power-Outages–You-don-t-by-Charlotte-Wilson-100103-934.html

Article update, Jan. 20, 2010

How can it be that Brazil is more technologically advanced than the United States* - And they still have major power outages. What is happening with power outages right now in the US and elsewhere – my power may go out any minute, as I write this.

The winter story from California, , beginning the week of Jan. 17, 2010, brings a series of 4 storms back-to-back, expected to be the largest of this season – more rain since the record was set in southern California in 1993 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/18/power-outages-reported-in_n_427338.html

 “63,000 customers were without power for part of the day,” while, “Disneyland was forced to close down 3 hours early.” An amusement park closing for any period of time amounts to expensive downtime. The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for La Canada Flintridge, and Glendale, http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/01/bad-weather-heavy-rain-winds-thunder-lightning-mudslides-in-southern-california.html throughout the 250 sq. mile area of last years summer forest and wildfire areas. LA is awash, a veritable slide show – power lines down, and water filling and washing out drainage preparedness, as rainfall “could reach ½ to ¾ inch per hour… reaching 20 inches by Friday.” Thousands of people are cold and wet as power goes off and on. For more information on the evacuations, go to http://dpw.lacounty.gov/care

Power outages are widespread in Central California (Carmel, Monterey) along the coast where Emergency Weather Advisories interrupted last night’s TV programming to post wind hazards of up to 100 miles per hour with the forecast of hail storms – warnings to include all of Northern California and heavy snows in the Sierras, north to mid-Oregon.

http://www.implu.com/government_news/400/112292

Technologically, we can put power outages behind us – We haven’t yet found a way to stop hail and snow storms, or floods due to erosion from forest and wildfires, butpower outages are a thing of the past.

Inventor Pete Sumaruck comments to the author, regarding power blackouts – not the usual tips on what to do “if.”

New Energy is new science, but more than anything, it is essential that science relates to everyday life – the practical stuff that defines our lives and moves us into the next day.

In conversation with a traveler going home to Minneapolis, after Christmas in San Francisco, I asked, “What’s the weather like at home; what will greet you.” “Twenty-five feet of snow,” he tells me (my mind jumps to 25 high, but I’m sure he means the distance from the street to his front door).

“You’ll be getting in late; will someone be there to help you,” I’m thinking of shoveling snow – tough duty after a long plane trip. The traveler tells me, “That big strong guy over there – my son – he’ll help me.”

“Oh good,” I’m relieved…“Tell me, I’ve always lived in California, been all over, but snow has always be discretionary for me. You get a lot of power outages in the East don‘t you? (I think of Minneapolis as East).

“Oh yes…(and), you don’t want it to go on for long; your pipes can freeze, have to leave the water on. And if your furnace uses natural gas, that’s an issue. They (the utility company) try to get on it, but I wouldn’t want to be out in the country at the end of the line, might take a long time for them to get to you.”

“You just get used to it,” he tells me.

Everyone gets used to things if there is no other alternative. Before modern medical attention, people got used to death. Death was a constant visitor in times past – it still is in many places around the world…akin to hunger…people force themselves to get used to it. But none of this is necessary.

We are in modern times now, right? You do not need to live with power outages.

Power outages do not exist with Peter Sumaruck’s electric power production system, no batteries, no plug in to the grid, no natural gas, no coal, no nuclear power, so no pollution. Pete say, “Yeah, but if a tree fell on you’re your house, on your home generator, that would knock it out…but no bother from ice on the power lines, or a tree falling on the lines” – simply no lines.

In cities across the country, the transformer outage is a common occurrence in both storms, and sunshine. This past Labor Day, there was a transformer power outage in Santa Cruz, California, the home of the Beach Boardwalk with it’s hundred year old rollercoaster. It’s a large operation so they have backup power, but stores and restaurants nearby, and into the downtown, were forced to close. Labor Day is understandably a big tourist day and 3 day weekend; much business was lost and travelers disappointed. In a downturned economy, each tourist dollar is important to a resort community.

“You know, America doesn’t make anything anymore,” Pete Sumaruck says when I asked him why transformers go out in a heavy rain or even on a sunny day. “Old equipment,” he says, “or garbage parts from Communist China…he says, “No manufacturing here, everything made in South America, or Indonesia, or Communist China. America used to be a manufacturing giant. That’s not true anymore.”

New Energy researcher Les Pastor says, “With technology, science and inventors, the situation in the U.S. is grim. In China, scientists and inventors are all 23 years old. In America, they are old and retiring, or leaving the country. Everything is happening outside the U.S.”

From the (Lake) Tahoe Daily Tribune , among other suggestions they also recommend, “sewer pump stations have limited storage capacity. Limit all water usage, and avoid flushing your toilet during a power outage.”

I laughed; Pete laughed. He to me, “I didn’t know they had electric toilets in South Lake Tahoe.” We could turn out all kinds of jokes on that one. But really, what kind of sewage treatment facility would be so outdated. Again, are we living in the “Dark” Ages.

Dec. 8, 2009, “With more storms in the forecast, stay safe by avoiding downed power lines or branches hanging in wires.” Common sense you say. Pete says, “Instead of making improvements to the technology, people are so used to power outages, they’re told to fend for themselves.” This is the age of technology – we can protect people; we just aren’t using the technology that’s available.

“Effects of storms linger in W.Va., Va.” from the “Chicago Tribune,” Dec. 27, 2009, “24,000 customers in both states were without power as of Sunday night.” “The power failure was the result of a massive winter storm more than a week ago.”

Christmas and no power for a week. With Pete’s system, either each home has it’s own power system, or a group of homes have a larger power system where lines are underground.

Again from the “Chicago Tribune,” Dec. 2   5, power outages “probably caused by ice” disabled the wastewater pumping stations out of two Iowa towns and into the Maquoketa River.

Pete says that means that when it’s not pushed outward by the pumps, “the effluent reverses direction and flows back, (in this case) and into the river.” Pete’s system can be applied anywhere power is needed, including a sewage treatment plant – no more raw sewage floating downstream.

Later that day, an electrical transformer failed in Iowa City, causing about 20,000 gallons of untreated water to flow over a farm field. That is not fertilizer for crops, maybe in some places in the world but not in this country.

“ComEd set to install ‘smart meters’ article,” from the “Chicago Tribune,”  “All customers will see a $5-a-year increase starting in 2010 to fund the $69 million program…with the installation of 131,000 meters,” by next summer.

What do these meters accomplish? ComEd says, “The meters will allow customers to see their usage on a daily basis,” and allow them, “to make power adjustments to reduce their bill.” The customer must reduce their own bill; the utility will not reduce the customer’s bill – is that logical, is that fair.

The ubiquitous utility company - Essential public services must remain open 24/7 while extra-ordinary fuel costs build. Hospitals and emergency services must have fuel-powered backup generators, the cost of which must be built into their services. All businesses also can run on this technology – go off the grid and stay open when others are down, now without the cost of fuel to power a back-up generator. Compare this to the times before modern medicine or emergency services, people lived by their wits – in those days there were no utility companies.

We have lived with utility companies for so long, we forget that they are an industry constructed for the sole purpose of turning a technology into a profit-maker. Now we have new developments in electric power technology…other industries will be developed to support it. This is the process of progress where an old science gives way to better technology, to include new jobs where none existed before - a kind of evolution.

“Squirrel knocks out power to thousands,” from the “LA Times.” Pete hears this and laughs, “They have an outage and need to blame someone – an innocent squirrel, ‘may have been nibbling’ they say.”  “Squirrel brings down Hollywood,” I say. They can pinpoint the location: “the intersection of Scenic Avenue and Beachwood Drive,” effecting 2,400 homes, and this was in the Hollywood Hills in the summertime. Can’t blame the weather; can blame antiquated technology.

Power outages exactly halfway around the world – in discussion with a home builder and property developer in the Philippines, regarding using Pete’s power systems in the homes he builds: power outages are extremely common, four times a week on average, in some areas now more frequently. Only two blocks from one of his subdivisions, a shopping mall just opened up. The mall of course uses a lot of power; this means more frequent and longer outages for the neighborhoods nearby. Pete said, yes, he could understand that. He shrugged. It happens…but how wonderful it would be for those people if it didn’t happen.

I asked the builder how his island, Negros, is powered. “Geothermal energy,” he said. This is good – a natural source, better than nuclear, or petroleum-gueled, or the gross polluter, coal. Even with renewable geothermal, it is obvious that the surge of humanity requires more power.

“Power Outage Closes Bellagio Resort in Las Vegas,” A Power outage at the 3,000-room Bellagio Resort forced the hotel to close while workers searched for the source of the electrical failure.

Due to an anomaly in the basic design of the hotel power system, both the primary and the backup power cables were placed in the same ductwork, thus preventing electricians from working on the down system while the backup was operating. This sounds like some kind of joke – a routine more appropriate for a Bellagio comedy club act, rather than successfully powering the hotel. Not funny for hotel finances – an estimated loss of $3 million for each day closed. This large building could have been powered by Mr. Sumaruck’s system, to reflect a huge cost savings.

More at Bellagio -

for a description of an experiment in cost saving done at the Bellagio Hotel showing a, “37.14% average power savings and an estimated yearly cost savings of $2,131.70,” for two of their escalators.

For a more detailed explanation, go to environmentalleader.com

where they refer to the Bellagio test case, saying that E-Save Technology showed, “The system can improve the efficiency of electric motors by 15-35 percent.”

“I am the only person in America who can get motors to run at 100% efficiency” – Pete gave a hearty laugh, and told me, “The Variable AC Drive was invented in 1972 to run AC motors to increase efficiency…some people claim a 50% effectiveness – they’re proud of that.” he smiles, but “I am the only person in America who can get motors to run at 100% efficiency,”(all the time). It never gets hot and can operate indefinitely or as he says, “30 years,” the standard lifetime of a new building. Mr. Sumaruck has more than 30 patents pending.

Patent for Variable Speed AC Drive invented by Katsuji Soeda, patent filed June 8, 1972, issued April 9, 2004 for “Speed Control System for A.C. Series (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commutator_(electric) Motor.”

For a good explanation, another company who does something similar to E-Save is Joliettech.

They say, “If you are not using VFD’s (Variable Frequency Drive http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable-frequency_drive) you are wasting energy and throwing money out the window.”

How can it be that Brazil is more technologically advanced than the United States* and it still has power outages – One storm and (presumably) a few fallen trees can take down a world capitol. The drama is best shown on an article from the Daily Mail.

A must click to this link, if only to view the photography; the first picture will stay with you forever.

The above article refers to the massive power outage in Brazil on Nov. 10, 2009, which, “…left tens of millions of people without electricity across most of the country’s wealthy southeastern region.” “Chicago Tribune,” Nov. 12, 2009. “Power outage isn’t cause for alarm, Brazil says.” President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told reporters in Brasilia, “We didn’t have a failure in the generation of energy, we had a problem in the transmission line.” So said, but that doesn’t make the lights come on any faster.

Government officials report the outage was probably caused by a heavy storm downing “three transmission lines” carrying power from the hydroelectric plant at Itaipu Dam – the largest such plant in the world and 2^nd largest dam in the world, 2^nd only to Three Gorges in China.. The dam is on the Parana River which acts as a border between Paraguay and Brazil. The plant services 20% of Brazil’s power and 90% of Paraguay’s power.

“The power system lost 17,000 megawatts after the massive plant went offline, possibly because of a storm. The director of the dam said it had lost its entire hydro-electric output.” BBC News, Nov. 11, 2009 tells Wikipedia “50 million people were affected.”

The blame game – Brazilian politicians and government officials are very sensitive to criticisms of their energy infrastructure, what with the Olympics set for 2016. “Latin America Herald Tribune” says, “Authorities at the dam said in a statement that the hydro plant resumed normal operations at around 6:AM local time Wednesday and that 18 of its 20 generators were producing 10,450 megawatts of power,” (at full power, 17,000 megawatts). That would mean that the power outage lasted 8 hours when government sources stated it was only 2 hours.

Brazil does not want the fault placed on the dam. Officially, Brazilian Mines and energy Minister Edison Labao (is that really his first name) said, “the problem could have been caused by atmospheric problems of high-intensity storms…or a disconnection between the plant and its transmission systems.”… per dailymail.co.uk, “strong storms uprooted trees near the Itaipu dam just before it went offline could be to blame.”

When I hear this, my first thought is that a few trees falling in a storm could not disable a huge country like Brazil.

Paraguay blames Brazil and the dam for the power failure at a time when both countries are thinking about complexities and additional strains on Brazils’ infrastructure building up to the future. “President da Silva announced that Brazil has committed to spending more than $14 billion to prepare for the upcoming 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics,” according to Suite101.com

No one wants to use the “S” word though many in the media are using the word “hackers.” The Daily Mail (with the great photographs) says, “The blackouts came two days after CBS’s ‘60 Minutes’ Reported that several past Brazilian power outages (2005 and 2007) were caused by computer hackers” (sabotage). The CBS program aired Nov. 8, while the 2009 outage was Nov. 10.

According to wired.com,

“Reports that hacker-extortionists triggered at least one blackout outside the U.S. first surfaced last year, based on comments made by CIA’s chief cyber security officer, Tom Donahue.” Read several “updates” on this story, at wired.com. One says Brazilian government regulators believe the 2007 outage was not the result of hacker activity but rather a utility company’s negligent maintenance of high voltage insulators on two transmission lines “traced to sooty insulators.” Is that as absurd as the squirrel story.

So which is worse, hackers, negligent maintenance, dam/power plant malfunction or trees on the wires? All of these choices, especially the downed trees and wires, can be prevented by Peter Sumaruck’s power production system technology.

The really significant thing is that Brazil already possesses Peter Sumaruck’s technology. But as far as we know, publicly, it is only being used for military purposes. See opednews.com, third page,

“Todd (conference moderator) asks Pete about his technology in Brazil. Pete gave his energy system to one of his military buddies who sold it to Brazil. Pete has stayed in this country (US) because he does not want his tech used for weapons (tech now also in Japan), but says that once it is out of his hands, ‘they do as they want.’”

“His tech has been applied to power a laser weapon which is light weight and can be carried on a soldier’s back. It was tested on a drone plane which when hit lost all electrical power and crashed. Todd says, ‘I guess we know when a plane falls out of the sky, we really can’t tell why.’ Pete replies, ‘Any tech can be used the wrong way.’”

Pete would have practically given away his technology to our government but they are slaves to commingled corporate and political hegemony. It is factions of our government that are responsible for various attempts on Pete’s life.

Brazil could go the other way – they could do the right thing. Think of the pristine rain forests, decimated to make way for biofuel corn production. “In Brazil itself, environmentalists have pointed to biofuel production as one of the key reasons for the steady deforestation of the Amazon basin,” guardian.co.uk.

Brazil does not need biofuel since they have Pete’s technology. Brazil can use this technology to benefit her people…and power its infrastructure. There is still time for Brazil to do this before the Olympics in 2016 so the lights will not go out…again.

Even if it takes Brazil longer to accomplish this changeover, the fact remains, Brazil is more technologically advanced than the United States. Come on, wake up, America. This is deplorable. The United States is sorely behind in technology. This is a sad comment on the times we live in.

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It should be noted – in that CBS “60 Minutes” program of November 8, I don’t see mention of the cyber attack in San Jose/Silicon Valley CA where fiber optic cables were intentionally cut on April 9, 2009. This attack caused a day out of the work week (how many millions of dollars did that cost) and took down 50,000 land lines; it was officially designated an act of sabotage, see: This incident has been hushed. A reward was posted for the arrest of the perpetrators but nothing has been heard about this since – “All’s Quiet on the Western Front.”