What do you think caused this fault?

[La Poste]

An electricity firm should "accept liability" for damage caused to 400 houses by a power surge in Blackburn, the town's MP has said.
ENW said the power surge was caused by a cable fault on the electricity network in the area at 10:00 GMT on Tuesday.

BBC News - Shear Brow power surge: Straw calls on firm to "accept liability"

I understand the article says a cable fault but does anyone have any ideas about which cable and how this could happen?

Thanks.

 

[pennywise]

:lipsrsealed2: Pikey with a death wish

 

[Des 56]

The ENW spokesman said: "Due to the unforeseeable nature of the fault, we have no obligation to repair appliances or offer compensation, however, we are doing what we can to make repairs and are offering customers a goodwill payment up to a maximum of £300 to help cover the excess on their home insurance."

You cant beat big business for dolling out bull****,then fleecing the ordinary Joe,(they have had lots of practice)

 

[Engineer54]

Someone should be enquiring about what protection relay's were involved on this section of network and this cable, and what the settings were??

 

[Knobhead]

Sounds like a neutral failure on the LV so virtually no protection at all. I recall a fault in Nottingham where the then EMEB did the decent thing and picked up the can and paid out. Can’t see that happening now, mores the pity! Business has no shame now.

 

[sparky3366]

I used to get loads of work when comcast sub contractors were putting in the ducting for the cable network. Their diggers were forever cutting through cables and getting billed by neeb/northern electric. They decided to get their own jointers in instead and kept reconnecting reverse polarity. Very few rcd's about then...mucho rewires lol

 

[La Poste]

Sounds like a neutral failure on the LV so virtually no protection at all.

I agree with this but I am a little shaky on details.

My knowledge of the network leaves a bit to be desired and I am not sure how a neutral fault would result in a surge like this.

I am guessing the surge was at 415 Volts the same as the voltage between phases but am not sure why.

Can anyone point to any suggested reading on the subject, how a lost neutral would result in this kind of voltage?

Thanks a lot.

 

[chronyx]

Am I right in saying if that as we don't know the fault voltage it could theortically have been crossed phases going down a single phase supply, or sub-station transformer shorting out?

(415V and or 11,000V!) I assume 11,000V would have caused some serious damage...

 

[alarm man]

i had the same a couple of years back at work,alarms fried,tv's fridges you name it, all gone on a housing estate,to be fair nedl picked up the cost for everything for every householder.

 

[stuart569]

and so they bloody should.Surely they have insurance!Why should the householder have to pay anything.The amount of money we pay to them should guarantee us a proper service

 

[pennywise]

But they want that just a little bit more

 

[kathwilcox]

i've done alot of work in my area with nedl/yedl, what they usually do is if it is a fault caused by them (fault on an underground cable or instance) then they will foot the bill for repairs, if the fault is caused by a third party ie people stealing copper from sub-stations then they won't pay out.

used to love doing those jobs, theres alot of team spirit and lots of free coffee and biscuits.