A brief power outage affecting the Vineyard and Upper Cape on Wednesday morning left about 27,000 people without electricity in the region.
Oak Bluffs Fire Chief Nelson Wirtz said a transmission line to a Falmouth transfer switch was down, which resulted in the outages on the Island and Upper Cape.
Eversource provided a statement Tuesday morning saying that power had been restored to most customers, but they were still looking into what happened.
“This morning, approximately 27,000 customers on Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard experienced a brief outage due to an issue with a transmission line that runs between Bourne and Falmouth, and helps to supply power to Martha’s Vineyard,” Kyle Costa, Eversource spokesperson, said. “Thanks to the distribution automation technology installed on our system, power was fully restored to all customers within 20 minutes. As the cause of the issue is still currently unknown, our personnel have been dispatched to assess the transmission line, and will remain onsite to conduct any necessary repairs.”
The power outage map from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency showed 12,883 customers on the Island lost power on Wednesday morning.
The down-Island towns took the brunt of the brief outage: 3,245 Tisbury customers were without power, 3,960 Oak Bluffs customers were without power, and 5,648 Edgartown customers were without power. West Tisbury also had a handful of 30 customers without power.
The MEMA map showed Upper Cape towns Falmouth, Sandwich, and Bourne collectively had more than 13,000 customers without power.
As of about 10 am, Eversource’s outage map shows that there were just 28 customers in Tisbury without power and a few hundred without electricity in the Upper Cape area.
Another lovely reason to buy your own solar panels and exit the grid.
What will it cost the average Island homeowner to exit the grid?
Albert, hmmm. It depends. Probably about 15k to 30k. There are a lot of variables on the island. Size of house. Insulation. Tree cover. Southern window exposure.
Most families have an ROI of three years.
If you remember, I’ve advocated for changing the law so that builders can only build highly insulated, max southern exposure buildings. Small homes require less power, so architects would be wise to design toward that goal, although, when we are choosing for ourselves, sometimes we pick convenience over efficiency.
More rules and regulations, lots more.
Only the wealthy can afford to exit the grid and pretend you’re doing something good. It was going to cost $60,000 upfront to put solar panels on my property and that does not include the cost of buying Storage batteries to store the electricity and it still wasn’t going to be enough to supply all the electricity I needed.
Bob –Sounds like you use a lot of electricity.
But I haven’t really looked into all that much .
How much did it cost you, Mary?
How much power does your place use?
Bob, there’s absolutely no way that is true. I had a 10KW solar system installed for half that much. Plus, you get a 30% federal tax credit the first year, so that takes away a third of the cost right away. My system makes more electricity than my 4 person, 4 bedroom house uses, and we heat/cool with electric.
Nester, thank you! Your feedback is very much appreciated. It’s helpful for other people to see that a solar system really is doable!
Bob– why is it that on any energy saving issue the
so called “conservatives” ( any idea what that word actually means ?)
claim it’s all virtue signaling and it doesn’t do anything.
It certainly reduces the demand for electricity on this island.
When there is a break
in a cable coming from the mainland on an extremely hot day
and there are “brown outs “—-have you ever heard of them ?—you
can continue to use all the electricity that you “need”.
People with solar are helping us all out, and you are so stuck in your radical
ideology that dictates that we can only burn oil
rabbit hole that you don’t even know it.
Keep the blinders on and do your virtue signaling to kowtow to the
oil barons all you want, but to those who are rational, intelligent
human beings, you and your ilk seem pretty foolish.
That would all be good Mary, if you have a battery storage system. Most people that have panels on the island do not have battery systems, meaning that when the power goes out they do not have power, regardless of the fact that they have PV panels.
Jamie, that system includes batteries.
Jamie, that solar company also sells individual batteries. There are many other companies who do as well. Check out eBay, they have an ever-changing menu of solar components. If someone installed their panels several years ago, they might be pleasantly surprised at how battery prices have dropped.
Bob, there are cheaper options available. For sure. You can buy most of the components off eBay and build it yourself. Unless you’re an electrician, you would need to hire out the connection part.
For instance, signaturesolar.com offers a complete, with batteries, off-grid, homestead system for $13,606. I’m not endorsing them because I haven’t purchased from them, it’s merely an example of what’s available. And if you have a large home you can add more batteries. And if you want to build a system incrementally, you can buy a basic system and add batteries later.
I contend that poor people can’t afford to stay connected to the grid. They should be the first people to invest in a solar system and an electric car. The rich people are the ones who can afford to flush money down drain every month on an electric bill and gasoline. Buy your own solar panels and free yourself from the slavery of an electric bill. Free yourself from the oppression of the oil companies.
How on Earth would poor people be able to buy an electric car?
John, how do poor people buy cars now? Probably they buy a used car. There are plenty of used electric cars available. Eventually, electric cars will be priced cheaper than gasoline cars because they are much cheaper to build. China is selling a brand new, 4-door car in $10k-$12k range. Our US auto industry has prevented from being sold in the US. Thank you very much.
Electric cars don’t have engines or transmissions so they are much, much cheaper to build. They also don’t require oil changes or belt changes.
Today, in Massachusetts, there are over 50 full electric cars, less than 4 years old, less than 40,000 miles, on the market, for less than $20,000.
About half the price of a decent, coal rolling dually sporting a Trump Won flag.
Last fall the Island rental companies were selling off Chevy Bolts with less than 20,000 miles for less than $18,000.
With Island gas prices poor people can’t afford gas cars.
“I contend that poor people can’t afford to stay connected to the grid.”
All they need is a house and $25,000 to invest in solar panels.
Katherine, that $13k price is for a complete system. Where did you get $25k?
A renter could, with the permission of the landlord, install the solar system and when they move, take it with them. Especially easy if they install the panels on the ground.
Frankly, there are people who travel camp as their permanent home and would work for that application too.
It was caused by a whale jumping on a transformer.
It was caused by wind turbine slaughtered birds.
Bob- We’re your average “run of the mill “ retired couple and we have a roof full of solar panels and benefiting from them. Try contacting Sunova …. We were very happy with their proposal and installation…Good luck!
Bob does not want to know, just complain, at length.
Thank you Donna! It’s wonderful to hear success stories!
It’s nice to see people taking advantage of the combination of solar panels and an electric car! 😁
Over the years that investment will reward them with nearly free electricity and transportation. Imagine! Over the lifetime of a young person if they spend $20k for a car, a really big house system for $30k, they will realize a massive savings. $50k FOR LIFE! Amazing difference. Compare that to the average family spending $13k for Only ONE YEAR of fossil fuel use.
Comments are closed.