Electricity supply problems?

[Terry Fields]

My daughter, who lives in South Devon, is reporting that her house lighting is flickering every few seconds...

Are the benefits of renewable energy with us already?

[Tim Watts]

On Tuesday 26 March 2013 12:31 Terry Fields wrote in uk.d-i-y:

No system warnings so it's not a national grid problem.

Demand is moderately high at 49.35GW but everything is generating.

Tell her to check if the neighbours are having problems (ask several in case it is a single phase problem) then ring the electricity company - the one with the cables, not necessarily the one she pays.

[Terry Fields]

All her neighbours are out, and she's too diffident to ring the network people. However, totalling up the supplies on your Gridwatch site, supply and demand are very close, with the afternoon/evening peak to come and wind beginning to fall away.

[Tim Watts]

On Tuesday 26 March 2013 12:42 Terry Fields wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Well a quick walk around to see if any lights are on (and not flickering) might be telling...

Erm - supply has to match demand - exactly[1] or the grid falls over...

[1] With the caveat that the demand can be forced to reduce a little bit by dropping the volts.

What you are looking for is a very large demand (60+GW), a *very* low frequency, and/or the oil generators running. Any of those, in particular the latter two, indicate they are struggling to meet demand.

[Tim Watts]

On Tuesday 26 March 2013 13:13 Tim Watts wrote in uk.d-i-y:

BTW - what state is her local wiring in? In case flickering lights is indicating a bad connection - which is a possible fire risk and should be checked out urgently...

[Mike Tomlinson]

In article , Terry Fields writes

That wouldn't cause the lights to flicker. They'd dim slightly (brownout) or go out altogether if load shedding is needed to protect the grid (blackout).

[Owain]

A loose connection at the service intake could be a serious fire risk or produce a dangerously high mains voltage if the phase/neutral relationship goes wrong.

Worth checking table lamps etc on the power circuits as well to rule out a problem with the lighting circuit.

If there is a network fault the DNO would probably appreciate being told about it now rather than at 6pm when it's dark and everyone wants to cook dinner.

Owain

[Mike Tomlinson]

In article , Tim Watts writes

That webpage is s**te. Doesn't load properly in Chrome and trying to view it in IE produces endless popups demanding to install a woefully outdated version of Flash.

[Terry Fields]

9yo house, still under guarantee...

[Terry Fields]

She says the lights have stopped flickering. Apparently it was the same for lights on the lighting and power circuits (both CFL and LEDs on each). It was a major flicker every 10 seconds or so, but didn't drop the router or reset any of the clocks, and she wasn't using any power (such as kitchen appliances) at the time.

Thanks for all your comments. May have been something local, but probably not a house wiring fault.

[Tim Watts]

On Tuesday 26 March 2013 13:24 Mike Tomlinson wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Now you see why TNP did gridwatch...

Firefox is about the only browser that works...

[Tim Watts]

On Tuesday 26 March 2013 14:14 Terry Fields wrote in uk.d-i-y:

*You* should probably ring her DNO (supply co) then. If they want to know why you are ringing, make up some excuse like her phone's dodgy, she's ill, bit deaf or anything like that. It should not be a problem.

Tell them what checks you've got her to do to try to show it is not a house wiring problem.

The best number if the lights really are still flickering would be the DNO's emergency number which you should be able to find on their website.

[Owain]

I bet that guarantee doesn't include torque on the meter tails

Owain

[Brian Gaff]

I doubt that, probably just a dodgy wire on an overhead pole somewhere. They get a lot of that down in SW UK. If its only her, than could be something more of a problem, but if its the area, then ring the supplier. I know one bloke who found it with h his car radio by driving his tractor down the post run till the arcing was loudest. What no tractor?

Brian

[harry]

ng is flickering every few seconds...

There is a fault some where on the system, It may or may not be on your premises. It needs URGENTLY looking at, this sort of thing can cause a fire/kill someone depending on where it is. You need to see if other properties are affected or not. Don't mess about with this one, you need to find out what's what right away.

[Brian Gaff]

Cow scratching its ars on the pole down the lane.

Brian

[Dave Liquorice]

I don't think we have that much capacity... A very large demand would anything around the mid 50's GW.

Less than 49.8 would probably count as "very low", it can be allowed to to drop to 49.5 Hz but then they have to catch up so time derived from the mains over a 24hr period is correct. They have been allowed to drop time in the past, winter of '47?

Oil and/or OCGT.

[Dave Liquorice]

They probably already know. A flicker is probably down to a fault on another 11 kV line fed from the same substation, or some switching transients upstream. Might be a branch touching a line but not getting a big enough belt to "self prune" and not touching often enough to make the auto recloser lock out. We've had that here once, but the "off" is a definate off for a second or two not a flicker that doesn't upset electronics. Some auto reclosers "phone home" when they lock out so the DNO knows very quickly.

[Tim Watts]

On Tuesday 26 March 2013 16:41 Dave Liquorice wrote in uk.d-i-y:

We did 2 years ago when I saw TNP's gridwatch exceed 60GW with my own eyes once in winter.

I realise that was 2 years ago so they've probably shut something down since then.

Ah - thank you. Forgot OCGT.

>

[Gordon Henderson]

My experiences of living in the SW UK (Southish Devon too), do not reflect that - it's been very stable in the 11 years we've been here. (a few minor blips but nothing to write home about)

Hoever I'm in a town (Buckfastleigh) and the trickery is fed underground from the substation - half a mile up the road, and you're onto pole-fed territory which is true of most of the more rural areas in Devon (& Cornwall too)

No issues today fwiw...

Gordon