I get my power from Western Power Distribution and experience the
occasional 'blip' and power outage (it's not just my property either,
others in the area suffer at the same time). On looking at Western
Powers' web site I see no logs, so am curious if their is any onus on
the distributor to make any failures available to their customers,
online or otherwise?

Thanks

On Sun, 06 Aug 2006 13:44:01 GMT, kerplunk wrote:

I get my power from Western Power Distribution and experience the
occasional 'blip' and power outage (it's not just my property either,
others in the area suffer at the same time). On looking at Western
Powers' web site I see no logs, so am curious if their is any onus on
the distributor to make any failures available to their customers,
online or otherwise?

Sustained faults are logged. Intermittent or transient faults (typically
birds flying into o'h lines or lightning strikes on o/h lines) are handled
by fully automatic switchgear and are not logged.

--
the dot wanderer at tesco dot net

On Sun, 06 Aug 2006 13:44:01 GMT, kerplunk wrote:

On looking at Western Powers' web site I see no logs, so am curious if
their is any onus on the distributor to make any failures available to
their customers, online or otherwise?

Highly unlikely to be available and they probably don't have remote
reporting from all the 11kV fuses and auto reclosers in the distribution.
If I call to report a failure within 5 mins of the power going off I more
often than not get an "Oh thanks very much, where are you? How many of
your neighbours are off? etc..."

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

I get my power from Western Power Distribution and experience the
occasional 'blip' and power outage (it's not just my property either,
others in the area suffer at the same time). On looking at Western
Powers' web site I see no logs, so am curious if their is any onus on
the distributor to make any failures available to their customers,
online or otherwise?

How often have you been off, and for how long ?

Are you aiming towards getting a payment for the loss of supply per the
guaranteed standards of service ?

AFAIK at present, the customer themselves have to claim, giving dates
and times, although this flies in the face of the automatic payments
that are supposed to trigger for other failures due under the standards.

On Sun, 6 Aug 2006 18:12:17 +0100, Colin Wilson
wrote:

Thanks for the replies.

There have been a few very brief (a few seconds) power blips in my
area over the past few weeks (perhaps half a dozen such outages) and
one sustained outage of about 3 hours.

Can I claim on the latter? Is it worth my while to do so (or is the
recompense a pound or two)?

The brief blips are a pain as they invariably cause my PC to shut down
incorrectly, once causing corruption that took me many hours to fix
(that was about 3 weeks ago).

"kerplunk" wrote in message
...

Thanks for the replies.

There have been a few very brief (a few seconds) power blips in my
area over the past few weeks (perhaps half a dozen such outages) and
one sustained outage of about 3 hours.

Can I claim on the latter? Is it worth my while to do so (or is the
recompense a pound or two)?

The brief blips are a pain as they invariably cause my PC to shut down
incorrectly, once causing corruption that took me many hours to fix
(that was about 3 weeks ago).

Get a UPS. They're not that expensive these days - you don't need a huge one
to cover the power blips you're getting.

Obviously it also covers you against power outages for other reasons (fuses
etc). It doesn't help you if you pull the power lead out of the PC with your
feet though :-(

cheers,
clive

Obviously it also covers you against power outages for other reasons (fuses
etc). It doesn't help you if you pull the power lead out of the PC with your
feet though :-(

cheers,
clive

Voice of experience ....

Dave

On Sun, 6 Aug 2006 18:40:46 +0100, "Clive George"
wrote:


Get a UPS. They're not that expensive these days - you don't need a huge one
to cover the power blips you're getting.

I keep thinking about it, but a little voice keeps telling me that as
I'd be getting it due to the faults that Western Power are responsible
for, then why should *I* pay for it?

There have been a few very brief (a few seconds) power blips in my
area over the past few weeks (perhaps half a dozen such outages) and
one sustained outage of about 3 hours.

I don`t think these count as being off supply - payments are normally
only triggered by an outage of 18 hours or more afaik, BICBW :-}

If you`re back on within seconds, its likely an auto-recloser switching
back in (they normally switch about 3 times before they lock out)

The longer outage might then have been to do post-fault maintenance on
the breaker, depending on its type, or to get someone onsite to reset
the auto-recloser.

"Colin Wilson" wrote in message
t...
There have been a few very brief (a few seconds) power blips in my
area over the past few weeks (perhaps half a dozen such outages) and
one sustained outage of about 3 hours.

I don`t think these count as being off supply - payments are normally
only triggered by an outage of 18 hours or more afaik, BICBW :-}

If you`re back on within seconds, its likely an auto-recloser switching
back in (they normally switch about 3 times before they lock out)

The longer outage might then have been to do post-fault maintenance on
the breaker, depending on its type, or to get someone onsite to reset
the auto-recloser.

What about the Multiple Interruptions Standard ? or ar the DNO still trying
to keep that secret!!

Hope you are well Colin

Regards

Steve Dawson

I don`t think these count as being off supply - payments are normally
only triggered by an outage of 18 hours or more afaik, BICBW :-}
What about the Multiple Interruptions Standard ? or ar the DNO still trying
to keep that secret!!

I couldn`t remember any specifics so I didn`t want to put my foot in my
mouth as usual :-p (i`ve probably got an old copy of the standards on my
PC somewhere, being the sad barsteward that I am :-} )

Hope you are well Colin

Not bad thanks - you ?

On Sun, 06 Aug 2006 17:28:11 GMT, kerplunk wrote:

There have been a few very brief (a few seconds) power blips in my
area over the past few weeks (perhaps half a dozen such outages) and
one sustained outage of about 3 hours.

Overhead lines feeding you? Sounds like tree growth tripping an auto
recloser, this detects the fault disconnects the power for a second or
two, then puts it back on, if the fault still exists it'll knock it off
again. The auto recloser will lock out to the off state if it trips more
than say 3 times in a short period. It then needs a man to come out find
and fix the fault and reset the auto recloser.

With tree growth the blast from the intial contact often "prunes" the
tree back so when the power is reapplied the fault no longer exists. This
saves the trip out by a man but may well happen a few times during the
growing season. An auto recloser is handy if lightning trips the supply
as well, again no trip out by a man to restore supply for a transient
fault.

Can I claim on the latter? Is it worth my while to do so (or is the
recompense a pound or two)?

ISTR that compensation doesn't normally kick in until you have been
without power for 12hrs, it might not start for 24hrs though. You need to
check with your supplier (or is this down to the distributer these days?)

The brief blips are a pain as they invariably cause my PC to shut down
incorrectly, once causing corruption that took me many hours to fix
(that was about 3 weeks ago).

That is what a UPS is for, a small cheapo one with auto shutdown software
for your PC is around £40. Even at the minimum wage it would have paid
for itself in your saved time...

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail