Last Saturday was very hot and at about 6.30 pm a series of short blackouts occurred at my home in Wollondilly shire on the outskirts of Sydney. I happened to have a power meter connected at the time and watched as the voltage dropped from around 230 slowly to 208 at which level the power went off for a couple of seconds then restarted. The voltage went back to 230 or so then the process repeated . This went on for about half an hour. I switched off what I could but it is a pain having to reset all the clocks, redate the phone etc. The fridges weren't, to happy about it either. Non peak times the voltage goes up around 250Maybe we are going to have to have a UPS set up in our homes with all the changes in the electricity arrangements!

Selective blackouts are the normal response to overloading like that. Everyone cranks up their aircons at the same time, grid can't keep up, so it bombs a segment. It comes back online after awhile, assuming the dickhead users would have turned off a few things, and the process starts over again. When there is more load than you can supply, the only option is to cut power. This is a no-excuse cheap-arse way to make an appliance. Any way to save a cent. There are control boxes that sense brown or blackouts, and forcibly keep the fridge off for some time before trying again. If you power up an the wrong moment in the gas transition phase, it can damage the fridge. Depends where you are. I'm in the thick of Sydney, so the likelyhood of power issues is less, but it's a growing problem. Adelaide has this issue, and mainly because aircons have put a very short high load on the grid. To fix it, you need additional power generation plants to keep up to the demand. They have more...

On Mon, 28 Nov 2011 21:03:26 +1100 terryc Redundant.

Is this the future?

Nov 24, 2011 28 Replies

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terryc 14 years ago

I'll let you in on a secret, no one offers that fantasy product.

Read the fine print, they are selling you what you signed up for.

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Rheilly Phoull 14 years ago

I don't doubt we are tied up with the fine print, but we are charged a "supply fee" that purportedly is so that we have continuous supply.

Rheilly

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terryc 14 years ago

Nope, that would incurr a "continuous supply fee" on top of that.

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kreed 14 years ago

Not really, they would have known that the majority didnt want it, they would have known what damage it would do to the country, so they were not looking after the nation, or even their electorate, they sold out an entire nations future for a handful of cash.

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Rheilly Phoull 14 years ago

So what do they want next when we buy off of them, organ donor rights ??

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terryc 14 years ago

Shrug, it is a totally useless poltician that just does what voters want.

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kreed 14 years ago

NON - posthumous organ donor rights ;)

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JW 14 years ago

Redundant.

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kreed 14 years ago

So we really are a dictatorship where all we choose is who is going to abuse us ?

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