Power Cut today at approximately 11.10

Thu 29 Sep 2022, 20:59

I think it is unrealistic to expect these things not to happen without warning.  I don't know about the rest of Charlbury, but at the nearest house in the town to the solar farm and also to the electricity sub-station on Fawler Road we must have had at least four power cuts in the past year, and probably an average of more than one a year over the past 25 years.

I did find it a bit amusing to be advised by Scottish and Southern to refer to their website for updates on the situation when I have no way of accessing the web without power....

Thu 29 Sep 2022, 20:25

It was an "unplanned outage". That meant something went wrong, so I don't think an advanced warning is possible. It is, of course, a rude reminder of how dependent we are on a reliable electricity supply. Fortunately, we are not facing what they are in parts of Florida, which will be days without power.

Thu 29 Sep 2022, 20:14

All I know is, nothing of the technicalities but I found it frightening. It also inconvenienced  me to reset several security items. This should not be allowed without due warning. 

Thu 29 Sep 2022, 18:29

Does this mean that SSEN will be back tomorrow resulting in another lengthy power cut?

Thu 29 Sep 2022, 17:35

The words sulphur hexafluoride inevitably pop into my head when such a thing is mentioned.

Thu 29 Sep 2022, 13:06

Yeah, some switch gear uses air or oil flow to kill/quench the arc between the contacts.

Thu 29 Sep 2022, 12:56 (last edited on Thu 29 Sep 2022, 12:57)

Something just brushed a distant fuzzy bit of memory from years ago - do the transformers have some sort of powerful mechanical circuit breaker that makes a heckuva noise when it slams bus bars etc into a disconnect...? Like an overload or a short (think jackhammers or JCBs here). I've got some sort of memory from when was roadbuilding in my youth and something happened a couple of hundred yards away near a building construction we were working towards. 

I've never bothered to look into how big transformers are made apart from vague idea of big copper coils immersed in cooling/insulating oil.

Thu 29 Sep 2022, 12:56

power is back on in Crawborough now unlike our pension pots ;-)

Thu 29 Sep 2022, 12:37 (last edited on Thu 29 Sep 2022, 12:45)

Power came back up here at the bottom end of The Green in not too long a time. I was reading and hadn't noticed it had gone off until a handful of spooky voices started suddenly intoning "Power restored. Re-establishing connection" or variations thereof etc. Hadn't realised just how many devices in the house had little speakers, had utterly no idea they were so equipped, as never heard anything from them before. 

We're right by a transformer. There's another transformer at the east end of The Green. I have no idea how Charlbury is wired up - how many feed-ins from the grid, is the town divided into sections, how many substations, transformers or their whereabouts. . Maybe we should ask Putin for one of their spetznatz maps. Seriously, I'd be quite interested in knowing a bit more about utilities installed capital layouts/topographies. Perhaps we are now running part of the Town on only the Solar Farm supply isolated from the rest of the world! We could be for all I know. Wonder how much PV current it is providing on this cloudy day.

Maybe the loud bang was a transformer catch fire (they are full of mineral oil). Saw one burn in the 60s, albeit at some distance up on top of a hill. Very exciting if you are 8 or 9yrs and school will be off for a day! But given how fiercely it burnt, if all that oil was to detonate all at once - hope no-one or nothing was too close!

If you are worried about electricity cut-offs, Wikipedia search for "The Carrington Event". We are overdue... And been utterly complacent in Government and Corporate management because amelioration in the system can be significantly improved for an event which is high probability - "when" not "if" - and should have been a priority as we've known enough for at least the last 100 years.

Thu 29 Sep 2022, 12:24 (last edited on Thu 29 Sep 2022, 12:36)

The two fire engines ended up at the primary school, plus 2 SSEN vehicles and the fire chief's car. The fire crews were peering over the fence of the substation in the school grounds. All gone now save the SSEN vehicles, and the drivers were just chatting to each other. The power is all back in my house in Ticknell Piece Rd.

Thu 29 Sep 2022, 12:12

It'll be the Russkies sabotaging the infrastructure. 

Thu 29 Sep 2022, 11:54

Might be nothing but 2 fire engines and a police car have gone down the main road towards charlbury. 

Thu 29 Sep 2022, 11:51

I heard a loud deep ‘bang’ when the power went off - hope nobody has been hurt.

Thu 29 Sep 2022, 11:42

Thanks for the info - I had no idea - wondered why the Wi-Fi suddenly dropped! 

Thu 29 Sep 2022, 11:40

It’s Liz Truss’s genius plan to help us with our electricity bills. 

Thu 29 Sep 2022, 11:31

It's an unplanned outage. SEN website says back by 2:30pm. 

Thu 29 Sep 2022, 11:29

Does anyone have any information as to how long it’s likely to last ?

Thank you in advance.