Faulty sub-stations lead to longer power outages

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Frankie

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Heavy current electrical switchgear has a finite number of actuations before maintenance is required - This switchgear has special arc extinguishing mechanisms, typically using oil or gas, and although the contact tips are made from a special material the tips needs changing after a specific number of actuations.
This load shedding is placing a heavy burden on these breakers, and we all know that they are not being maintained, so expect their failures to exacerbate the power problem in the near future.


Faulty sub-stations lead to longer power outages
http://www.theherald.co.za/herald/news/n15_15042008.htm

A FAULTY sub-station and load-shedding led to power cuts lasting up to five hours in Port Elizabeth yesterday.

“After the electricity was turned on, the faulty sub-station gave in and the power switched off after a few minutes,” municipal spokesman Lourens Schoeman said.

Central areas had been mostly affected. Schoeman said the problem had been repaired quickly.

“It was unfortunate that the fault happened while the electricity was being switched on.”

Other areas affected were Park Drive and Parsons Hill, where the power was off for about five hours during the day.

“The municipality‘s office was also affected as the power was off for about three hours,” said Schoeman.

John Meyer, director of Care Haven Psychiatric Centre, said they were concerned as the power outages were taking longer than two hours.

“The transformers in Central are very old and I think are not coping,” said Meyer

He said this was not the first time this had happened and they were left with psychiatric patients who had to be served food and it was difficult to do this without power.

“I don‘t know what the municipality is going to do about the problem,” said Meyer.

Two weeks ago The Herald reported vandalism at sub-stations where copper bars were removed and that led to prolonged power cuts.
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“It was unfortunate that the fault happened while the electricity was being switched on.”
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When else would a problem occur on this unit?
 
"Two weeks ago The Herald reported vandalism at sub-stations where copper bars were removed and that led to prolonged power cuts."

Err, somewhat naive to think that they removed the copper bus bars as an act of vandalism ? ........
 
I rememer about a year or so ago that a sub-station in Boksburg burst into flames because of bad/no maintenance.

Another couple of things to remember - things like sub stations etc. are designed to run 24/7 - not be switched on and off like a disco light.

Also, think of your own situation at home - when does a light bulb normally blow? As soon as you flick the switch. Switching stuff on and off puts extra strain on the electrical parts (loooonnnggg explanation)..... I wonder if they thought of that with this bullshed, erm, sorry, loadshedding.....

Probably not....
 
A sub station near us exploded yesterday knocking out the power of another suburb an hour before their scheduled power cut and give us a 'dip' that screwed up my router:rolleyes:

The idiots are helping along the decaying infrastructure they supposed to be repairing
 
alanf85 said:
A sub station near us exploded yesterday knocking out the power of another suburb an hour before their scheduled power cut and give us a 'dip' that screwed up my router:rolleyes:

The idiots are helping along the decaying infrastructure they supposed to be repairing
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Do yourself a favour, get a decent UPS. Not so much as to keep you going when all else about you are blacked out, but to protect your equipment from the spikes, surges and sags which Eskom calls electricity.
 
Eskom has the worlds best alternating current.
It alternates from "not there" to "super there" to "there" to "sort of there" to "not there"
 
I heard a rather scary story yesterday that Eishkom are upping the voltage to compensate for the drop in current. In fact, a UPS in a server room got hit with a 400-500V spike that trashed it. And the suppliers are not too keen to put another one in until Eishkom can provide 'cleaner' power - which means the servers needs to be connected directly to the source until it settles - which clearly isn't the wisest thing to do.
 
Albereth said:
I heard a rather scary story yesterday that Eishkom are upping the voltage to compensate for the drop in current. In fact, a UPS in a server room got hit with a 400-500V spike that trashed it. And the suppliers are not too keen to put another one in until Eishkom can provide 'cleaner' power - which means the servers needs to be connected directly to the source until it settles - which clearly isn't the wisest thing to do.
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That's surprising. I would not have expected an UPS to succumb to a 500V spike.
 
Albereth said:
I heard a rather scary story yesterday that Eishkom are upping the voltage to compensate for the drop in current. In fact, a UPS in a server room got hit with a 400-500V spike that trashed it. And the suppliers are not too keen to put another one in until Eishkom can provide 'cleaner' power - which means the servers needs to be connected directly to the source until it settles - which clearly isn't the wisest thing to do.
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bekdik said:
That's surprising. I would not have expected an UPS to succumb to a 500V spike.
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HavocXphere said:
A 500V spike will kill absolutely anything including your UPS.
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I might be a idiot thinking this, why not put a normal consumer UPS between the enterprise class UPS? Thus protecting your enterprise class UPS from the spikes with that much cheaper UPS...
 
supersunbird said:
I might be a idiot thinking this, why not put a normal consumer UPS between the enterprise class UPS? Thus protecting your enterprise class UPS from the spikes with that much cheaper UPS...
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I think the cheap UPS will not handle the amount of KVA.
 
PE - William Moffet drive sub station blows up

Radio Algoa are reporting a sub station has blown up somewhere along William Moffet drive.

The predicted collapse of the infrastructure.
 
alanf85 said:
A sub station near us exploded yesterday knocking out the power of another suburb an hour before their scheduled power cut and give us a 'dip' that screwed up my router:rolleyes:

The idiots are helping along the decaying infrastructure they supposed to be repairing
Click to expand...

Same here today at 14:08 in Walmer P.E. Sub station went up smoke.
 
Happened to a Green Point sub station in Cape Town.
Funny thing is they have multiple fail overs so for it to blow up it must be realy stuffed.
Most work with oil cooling and when the oil gets to warm a thermo couple trips the breaker protecting the coil.

Well done Eskom. Keep it up and we will be in deepest darkest africa.
 
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