Comment by karussell
4 years ago
Impressive data collection from OpenStreetMap (as always :)).
It would be great when wind power sources could be highlighted like solar sources and when wind & solar are more visible by default. Even solar power parks appear only on larger zoom scale (in my area).
OSM contains errors and I don't know how to fix them. For example, it shows a 115kv line that branches off into Palo Alto and back out through Mountain Veiw before rejoining the main line along Steven's Creek. This line is NOT continuous and in fact only the part north from the Palo Alto substation is active. That's the section that was hit by the small plane carrying Tesla execs a number of years back. That incident knocked the entire city offline because the other part of the line I'm talking about is NOT hooked up.
> OSM contains errors and I don't know how to fix them.
The easy part of the answer to this is: go to openstreetmap.org, sign up for an account, login (top right) and then press the "Edit" button (top left). There is a lot of info[0] on their wiki on how to get started.
There is also information on how to map power lines[1] - I am guessing applying it to your specific example is what might be a bit harder, but it's probably doable.
The overpass-api tool is useful for finding objects, for example the power lines in the area that you mentioned: https://overpass-turbo.eu/s/1f6N
It's sometimes a bit fiddly, but when I very occasionally (like once a year) find something to correct, I can get it done.
Happy mapping.
[0] https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Beginners%27_guide [1] https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Power_lines
See also https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Contact_channels - there are active communities using IRC, Discord, Slack, Telegram, mailing lists and other communications tools.
Feel free to join them and ask for help!
I'm happy to help, I've done a decent amount of power line mapping in California. If you reply here or @willbradley on Twitter I can either advise or work with you to identify the problems. Should take 15 mins to fix once we know what exactly the changes need to be.
You might also look here for reference, California has a pretty great energy-related map library: https://caenergy.maps.arcgis.com/home/gallery.html?view=grid...