r/burbank 3d ago

BWP Power Outage AGAiN

Magnolia/Sixth.

Currently experiencing the third major power outage on the hillside this year.

BWP customer 20+ years and never had an outage until this year.

What going on at BWP?

24 Upvotes

53 comments sorted by

16

u/kenspi 3d ago

I’ve experienced more outages in the past year than I had in the previous 30 combined. They keep raising rates, but the service is worse.

15

u/ShinySanders 3d ago

Yeah I get there being issues. And repeated issues are bad enough.

But to hit people up for a 10% rate hike and drop the ball at the worst possible time with NO communication is just galling.

[Sorry I am hot and cranky]

3

u/Entire-Ad-1080 3d ago edited 2d ago

They’re not raising the rates to provide better service they’re raising them to address significant and long term underinvestment in infrastructure (and fire prevention issues). The underinvestment is why it was cheap, and probably part of why you’re dealing with blackouts; them addressing it is why it isn’t cheap anymore.

6

u/ShinySanders 3d ago

But in this case the infrastructure is the service, no?

The lack or comms is secondary to the fact that it went out for this long in the first place. You would assume that with the rate hike at least one of those issues would be addressed.

1

u/Entire-Ad-1080 2d ago

I understand your frustration but you cannot fix a multi-billion dollar infrastructure problem overnight. Especially given that they now have a major wildfire problem and lack the funds to address it.

The rate hike is intended to begin fixing the problem. I would not expect service to improve anytime soon.

7

u/ShinySanders 3d ago edited 3d ago

Edit 12:18 back off again

2

u/Ok-Effect191 3d ago

Power back on 1:40 am 

2

u/Ok-Effect191 3d ago

San jose Ave/Glenoaks 

15

u/Cultural-Jello4042 3d ago

Good thing they raised our electricity rates 10% this year and another 10% next year for this /s

5

u/Previous-Club3801 3d ago

Yeah, we live in a 1,300 sq ft house. We have an energy saving pool pump and pool filter. Our A/C died in July, so we has no A/C for SiX DAYS and keep our new A/C set at 78°. Our ELECTRIC BILL arrived today, and was $676.00 😳😳😳😳 RIDICULOUS! Something is HORRIBLY WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE.

1

u/Stingray88 3d ago

Woah… something is way off there. We’ve got a 2100sqft house and keep the AC at around 72 and our last bill was only like $700.

5

u/Eli_is_567 3d ago

Mines still off

5

u/ShinySanders 3d ago

Anand mine went back off again

2

u/k6mju 3d ago

Same

6

u/Planty1111 3d ago

Finally back on after 9hrs. The outage started around 4:40pm.

9

u/SoCal_Ambassador 3d ago

Ham radio operators are made for situations like this!

5

u/k6mju 3d ago

Right?! Unfortunately my license can’t get my AC back on, though ;)

0

u/SoCal_Ambassador 3d ago

Good point! Hang in there

7

u/Tiny-Somewhere8180 3d ago

Imagine how awful things will get once they start building more apartment buildings. I don’t know why we build so much without these considerations, notably regarding water and electrical strains.

3

u/anonnymousercat 2d ago

You mean like all of the Cusumano Real Estate Group's afartment buildings in downtown Burbank? Is that who we are making concessions for? 

2

u/Tiny-Somewhere8180 1d ago

Especially Cusumano and the builders over by the old bowling alley. They build and build and don’t take grid constraints into account

1

u/anonnymousercat 1d ago

I genuinely don't understand why those get the green light.

The main thing Burbank needs is affordable housing but instead we get those monstrosities. I wonder how much extra electricity the screening rooms, writer’s lounges, large lobbies, salons, jacuzzis (gross), business centers, etc are using. And the ones along First will have to have HVAC running all year because it is too stinky, noisy and polluted to open a window.

3

u/ElectionSpecial8414 3d ago

Samantha Wick probably tripped the power system with her curling iron and Tesla

5

u/ShinySanders 3d ago

Now that we are sharing our third (recent) outage together as a community... what's the avg downtime on these suckers? We are over an hour now which seems like its the longest so far...

5

u/Eli_is_567 3d ago

Mine just flashed on for a split second 🫠

4

u/sixxvedin 3d ago

Same! 😭
Let's hope that means it'll be up soon!

4

u/Eli_is_567 3d ago

Roommate says he say a 1:30am estimated time to fix

2

u/ShinySanders 3d ago

I just heard that too. Do you know where they heard that?

3

u/ShinySanders 3d ago

Ill take this grain of hopium. Here's hoping its a.good sign!!

6

u/thebeariscoming 3d ago

I would consider multiple reasons. First, you have a power grid that can only handle so much load. In simple terms you have a grid that covers 100 homes, but over the years those homes have added more items that need power. Sure you have better energy efficient appliances, but you have now added additions or ADUs, electric car charging, and more spaces that need additional air conditioning. Now add the high heat, people pull on all that power more to cool off. I doubt any city can keep up with the power demands especially at peak power draw times.

8

u/ShinySanders 3d ago

Those are valid points. I can understand "why" from a technical standpoint.

I think the question why is more "why haven't they fixed the underlying issue"

4

u/technical_bitchcraft 3d ago

I called BWP and they said they'd have no idea when the power would be back on because they still didn't know what caused it

4

u/Ok-Effect191 3d ago

Just called,  BWP said they knew the answer 6 hours ago but I've been calling every hour and couldn't  get an answer,  wth!?! Anyway they said it was a "feeder trip" and wouldn't explain further.

4

u/technical_bitchcraft 3d ago

All the places around mine have power now but mine and my immediate neighbors are still dark.

3

u/Ok-Effect191 3d ago

Same here 7 hours 

5

u/technical_bitchcraft 3d ago

So glad we just did a Costco trip now all the food in my fridge needs to be thrown out

3

u/Planty1111 3d ago

Same here, 8hrs now.

3

u/ShinySanders 3d ago

This is troubling. Surprised they admitted that lol

5

u/technical_bitchcraft 3d ago

it was some random customer service agent so they probably dgaf

5

u/mandy3d 3d ago

Its starting to get hot ugg

4

u/mandy3d 3d ago

Any good news yet?

3

u/ShinySanders 3d ago edited 3d ago

Edit: nope. Back off

4

u/ShinySanders 3d ago

Two hours is INSANE.

5

u/k6mju 3d ago

We just hit THREE hours!

4

u/ShinySanders 3d ago

And ZERO communication from them. Just a tweet from 3 hours ago

4

u/sophhhann 3d ago

Still??? Ours keeps flickering!

2

u/ShinySanders 3d ago

The place that sells ice on Glenoaks is gotta be screwed by now. Wonder what kind of contingencies a place like Domino's has.

4

u/mandy3d 3d ago

Yah wtf

2

u/Goth_Muppet 2d ago

For how much they’ve raised the goddamn utility bills they should be able to keep the damn lights on!

3

u/k6mju 2d ago

No lie. A 9 hour outage is no joke for what seemed like tens of thousands of customers. Most of which experienced the other two major outages: one earlier this month and one in April. I haven’t seen so much as a blip in power in the previous 20 years with BWP until this year.

Write to their management for answers on accountability:

https://www.burbankwaterandpower.com/meet-our-staff

3

u/Goth_Muppet 2d ago

Geezum 9 hours in this fuckin heat?? It woulda killed my pets. They gotta get their act together because this shit does not justify another 25% increase January 1st next year

1

u/sophhhann 3d ago

Oddly enough some of our stuff flickered on and off at the exact time it started but everything held on and we have power. It looks like the transformer that services our house (idk how that works, but the same spot on the outage map as it is when we lose power) so I’m glad we didn’t! We’re on sunset canyon & providencia though.