Power cuts everywhere

James · Nov 27, 2021

All this wind seems to be causing quite a headache for the grid.
not seen it this bad for a long time, if ever.

note, this is only for western power distribution area, I bet the whole country would look like a measles outbreak if there was a map of all areas.

Baddegg · Nov 27, 2021

All ok down here so far mate ?

littlespark · Nov 27, 2021

A few flickers up my way, but power stayed on.

Fence has collapsed between me and neighbour and there’s a good few trees down on local road.

I’m supposed to be changing a garden floodlight up a ladder today… that’ll not be happening!

Stay safe if you’re out.

James · Nov 27, 2021

I live in the middle of the “n” of the word Birmingham on that map and all is good here too.
But it must be a grim morning for a lot of people who are affected.

James · Nov 27, 2021

littlespark said:
A few flickers up my way, but power stayed on.

Fence has collapsed between me and neighbour and there’s a good few trees down on local road.

I’m supposed to be changing a garden floodlight up a ladder today… that’ll not be happening!

Stay safe if you’re out.

Could be a little dangerous, it can be difficult to persuade the house owner to foot the ladder when you rock up up in your kilt.?

littlespark · Nov 27, 2021

James said:
I live in the middle of the “n” of the word Birmingham on that map and all is good here too.
But it must be a grim morning for a lot of people who are affected.

In the middle of the “n”?

Sheltered on three sides, then?

buzzlightyear · Nov 27, 2021

I bet our kids out some where fixing the grid, he works for Scots power.

pc1966 · Nov 27, 2021

Our site is still working, but quite a lot of fence damage so going out later to try and patch it up for general safety and security (though generally a quiet country area so less issue of drunks doing dumb stuff). Also the turdis went for a walk and righting that is not going to be pleasant!

Saw a few flickers on lights but no sign of any outages being reported by the various UPS.

Edit: SSE has a map, but crap as only seems to work in Chrome, and it is reporting 277 just now (10:11 on 27th)

SparkySy · Nov 27, 2021

We have had a few Dips and flickers in Northamptonshire, but it's still on!
On another note anyone keep an eye on gridwatch ? Some strange goings on with the grid of late odd patterns and a total loss of CCGT the other day, and we hit 44GW I think it was yesterday! Not much margin left!!

pirate · Nov 27, 2021

buzzlightyear · Nov 27, 2021

I see gourdes will be stripping off think its summer.

Rockingit · Nov 27, 2021

I‘m currently watching the big willow at the end of our garden that stills needs pollarding..... old trunk has to be 1.5m+ dia at least and will make one hell of a mess if it goes over!!

Zerax · Nov 27, 2021

Rockingit said:
I‘m currently watching the big willow at the end of our garden that stills needs pollarding..... old trunk has to be 1.5m+ dia at least and will make one hell of a mess if it goes over!!

And aren't willows very shallow rooted ??

telectrix · Nov 27, 2021

Rockingit said:
I‘m currently watching the big willow at the end of our garden that stills needs pollarding..... old trunk has to be 1.5m+ dia at least and will make one hell of a mess if it goes over!!

make a good fire on the log burner though.

telectrix · Nov 27, 2021

Zerax said:
And aren't willows very shallow rooted ??

will know after a leaf through research ( see that. ).

pc1966 · Nov 27, 2021

The grim results of high winds after righting (with a rope, as far as practical from the doorway). You can see why it is called the turdis, for something no bigger than an old police phone box it claims to have the capacity for 7 people!

nicebutdim · Nov 27, 2021

Nice ?

...but I need to use more words.

littlespark · Nov 27, 2021

“Turd-is”

good one.

Also needs some extra words here

brianmoooore · Nov 27, 2021

Haven't even seen a flicker of the lights, and the clock/radio in the bedroom that usually starts to flash 12.00 when the power fails for anything over a millisecond was still showing the correct time this morning.
Missus's favourite holly tree is lying on its side though.

BiddeldyBwah · Nov 27, 2021

pc1966 said:
The grim results of high winds after righting (with a rope, as far as practical from the doorway). You can see why it is called the turdis, for something no bigger than an old police phone box it claims to have the capacity for 7 people!
View attachment 92412

I had a slash in one of these on site one day. Never again. You really don't wanna disturb what lays at the bottom.

pc1966 · Nov 27, 2021

BiddeldyBwah said:
I had a slash in one of these on site one day. Never again. You really don't wanna disturb what lays at the bottom.

Alas I have an idea of what lies in the bottom of our one. My old compact camera

Slipped out of my pocket a few months ago while getting my overalls back on, I stupidly forgot to put the lid down before manoeuvring in a tight space.

7029 dave · Nov 27, 2021

Had outage today about 1 1/2 very high winds here.

mattg4321 · Nov 27, 2021

Not much more than a stiff breeze here in Sussex.

Hope everyone is ok elsewhere though

baldelectrician · Nov 28, 2021

I have 3 UPS's and they went off on Friday night (beeped and went a but nutty)

I have one on my PC, one on my network rack mount (with router, nework hard drive) and one in my meter cupboard for my CCTV system

I even toyed with the idea of having my lights fed through my UPS so I would have lights in the event of a power cut as the NVR is next to my consumer unit.

pirate · Nov 28, 2021

No power cuts here, thankfully. I'm all-electric, so my back-up warmth is a bottle of Lagavulin or Fundador!

pc1966 · Nov 28, 2021

Turns out one of our UPS did complain about "lack of bypass" at 19:02 on Friday and again around 08:33 on Saturday, but it did not declare "on battery" as that generates an email at the time.

Odd thing is we have 3 UPS, each off a different phase, but one is much older so reporting different, and the other did not complain. We more or less have a direct path to the local substation (110m from our area to the 100A feed switched-fuse off the 800A busbar chamber, in turn fed via about 20m of singles from the 500kVA transformer) so it is odd, but maybe it was seeing major disturbances just on the one phase.

Or the two UPS somehow have different internal thresholds, etc. They should be the same, but were bought about 6 months apart.

Rockingit · Nov 29, 2021

pc1966 said:
The grim results of high winds after righting (with a rope, as far as practical from the doorway). You can see why it is called the turdis, for something no bigger than an old police phone box it claims to have the capacity for 7 people!
View attachment 92412

Don't normally tell 'tour stories', but this one is too good.....

Was V Fest 2014, late night after all the acts had finished and I was working on tour with Ben Howard whilst another old mate was working with Newton Faulkner and we were all parked up (tour busses) in the same compound as Ed Sheeran and his crew who we also all knew. Three-ish am and much vino had been consumed by our impromptu gathering when all of a sudden two young-ish girls appeared out of nowhere, clearly not used to normally being backstage and in some state of distress. Turned out they were sisters and one of them had had the misfortune to be 'tipped' - deliberately by a bunch of louts who thought it would be fun - whilst in a Turdis. This was the last hours of the last day of a major festival, I can only imagine (from experience!) what that must have been like..... She'd been literally hosed down by the welfare/medic team and put into some spare clothes but the poor girl was literally still stained blue and incredibly upset. So we welcomed them in and cheered them up with some celebrity hob-knobbing. I seem to recall that Ed Sheeran gave her the trainers off his feet as they were the same size and that I, er, 'disappeared for a while' with the other sister (in search of more champagne, naturally.....)

Rockingit · Nov 29, 2021

telectrix said:
make a good fire on the log burner though.

Willow takes a long time to season and yes it's OK on a burner as the heat gets trapped but you wouldn't put it on an open fire through choice

Zerax said:
And aren't willows very shallow rooted ??

Sadly! Normally grow along ditches and water-courses as they help to strengthen the banks but they grow top heavy so need pollarding every few years back down to a crown and start over. I'd estimate that our one has to be at least 150-200 years old at the base and it's at a pretty precarious angle to start with as there's a ditch the other side of it. The wild rabbits love it though as there's so many burrows in and around it.

telectrix · Nov 29, 2021

Rockingit said:
Willow takes a long time to season and yes it's OK on a burner as the heat gets trapped but you wouldn't put it on an open fire through choice

Sadly! Normally grow along ditches and water-courses as they help to strengthen the banks but they grow top heavy so need pollarding every few years back down to a crown and start over. I'd estimate that our one has to be at least 150-200 years old at the base and it's at a pretty precarious angle to start with as there's a ditch the other side of it. The wild rabbits love it though as there's so many burrows in and around it.

wild rabbit, slow cooked on a log fire. utter bliss.