Gas stations have generators?

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Do gas stations have back up generators?

I read this morning someone on a very old forum discussion (not savingadvice) say that they keep cash at home partly so that they would be able to buy gasoline during an extended storm outage. She said gas stations have generators.

I've never noticed generators at a gas station. But then, the writer does live on the Gulf Coast, so back up might be needed there more often.

I'm in the Mid-West U.S, and just have assumed that when there is no electricity from the big utility, there is no gasoline being pumped.

[Fishindude77]

Some do, some don't.
Large convenience stores typically do to protect everything in freezers and coolers, in event of a long outage. Generators may or may not provide enough power to run the whole place?

[ua_guy]

It really depends on the station. I've experienced this first hand.

There was a major storm in Seattle about 10 years ago and most of the stations don't have generators on the pumps around here. I was headed out of town and over a mountain pass in the winter, so I was really worried. The car had less than a half tank of gas. I was headed over the mountain to borrow a generator. We ended up being 9 days without power following a big snowstorm, and 30 degree temps.

I chanced it and drove, and found a gas station with people. There they were pumping gas out of the ground by hand. $5/gallon cash only, no change. They'd fill up a 5 gallon jug and let you dump it in your car. They had one of those big lids in the ground opened up. I'm sure what they were doing was probably illegal, but oh well...people needed gas.

Now I never keep less than 10 gallons on hand in jugs, and another 5 in the generator tank. It takes some work to cycle the gas every year (most of it we dump in our work truck, just so the gas stays fresh in the jugs). I like to fill the cars once they hit half tank. On the upside, I've never "had to stop for gas" before going anywhere, cars are always full enough.

For everything else, we have cash on hand. Small bills are good.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Fishindude, that is a good point. Yeah, that makes sense. Some of these gas stations have a lot to lose in a power outage, the way they stock a 24-hour lunch bar, selection of cold beer & soda, hot coffee and groceries.

Ua_guy, that's really interesting about how they pumped gas by hand and how the experience made you change your practices.

Around here, snow and ice storms have typically been the most common reason for larger scale outages. Wind storms do it as well, but seem to usually affect smaller areas. A few years ago, the electric provider here began a project to get trees trimmed back from power lines. They've done a great job. Even horticulturally speaking, they've done it really well, as though they got properly trained. Not like the brutal, tree-killing "pruning" I've seen in the past. Anyway, I think our chances of big, enduring outages have gone down.

We were out electricity recently, the longest times ever in my neighborhood. It was only eight hours. I think it was a transformer explosion during a windy rain, because I saw flashes of orange light and heard Boom-boom-boom when it happened.

[bjl584]

Do gas stations have back up generators?

I read this morning someone on a very old forum discussion (not savingadvice) say that they keep cash at home partly so that they would be able to buy gasoline during an extended storm outage. She said gas stations have generators.

I've never noticed generators at a gas station. But then, the writer does live on the Gulf Coast, so back up might be needed there more often.

I'm in the Mid-West U.S, and just have assumed that when there is no electricity from the big utility, there is no gasoline being pumped.

Some do.

Larger retailers like Walmart or Costco most certainly have generators to keep food from spoiling. Gas stations are a crap shoot. Smaller stations, probably not. Larger ones, maybe.

[QuarterMillionMan]

My 1st real job was working at a Chevron full service gas station and repair(1980-1985), no generator was in existence back then. Not sure about now though. When the electricity went out no gas was pumped.