Just had a power outage for a couple of minutes.
It came back on before I got bored enough to demonstrate my independance
from the National Grid (short term) by tethering my laptop to my mobile for
Internet access.
However I would like to know what caused it and if it is likely to happen
again before I power up the desktop.
Location is coastal Suffolk.

Is there any online resource which carries immediate reports of power
outages and causes?

Nothing obvious going on to explain this one - no thunder storms and the
like.

Cheers

Dave R

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

David WE Roberts wrote:
Just had a power outage for a couple of minutes.
It came back on before I got bored enough to demonstrate my independance
from the National Grid (short term) by tethering my laptop to my mobile
for Internet access.
However I would like to know what caused it and if it is likely to
happen again before I power up the desktop.
Location is coastal Suffolk.

Is there any online resource which carries immediate reports of power
outages and causes?

Nothing obvious going on to explain this one - no thunder storms and the
like.

Mm. I phoned up am emergency number when it happened to me.

Online resources telling you you cant get online are as useful as tits
on a bull.


Cheers

Dave R



--
To people who know nothing, anything is possible.
To people who know too much, it is a sad fact
that they know how little is really possible -
and how hard it is to achieve it.

"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
David WE Roberts wrote:
Just had a power outage for a couple of minutes.
It came back on before I got bored enough to demonstrate my independance
from the National Grid (short term) by tethering my laptop to my mobile
for Internet access.
However I would like to know what caused it and if it is likely to happen
again before I power up the desktop.
Location is coastal Suffolk.

Is there any online resource which carries immediate reports of power
outages and causes?

Nothing obvious going on to explain this one - no thunder storms and the
like.

Mm. I phoned up am emergency number when it happened to me.

Online resources telling you you cant get online are as useful as tits on
a bull.


Given that a substantial minority of the public now have a smart phone which
can access web sites, then t'Internet is a valid route for a query.
Unless of course the cellular masts and the local telephone exchange are
down, in which case a phone number isn't much use either.

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

On Jun 27, 7:11*pm, "David WE Roberts" wrote:
"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in ...









David WE Roberts wrote:
Just had a power outage for a couple of minutes.
It came back on before I got bored enough to demonstrate my independance
from the National Grid (short term) by tethering my laptop to my mobile
for Internet access.
However I would like to know what caused it and if it is likely to happen
again before I power up the desktop.
Location is coastal Suffolk.

Is there any online resource which carries immediate reports of power
outages and causes?

Nothing obvious going on to explain this one - no thunder storms and the
like.

Mm. I phoned up am emergency number *when it happened to me.

Online resources telling you you cant get online are as useful as tits on
a bull.

Given that a substantial minority of the public now have a smart phone which
can access web sites, then t'Internet is a valid route for a query.
Unless of course the cellular masts and the local telephone exchange are
down, in which case a phone number isn't much use either.

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

If the line reset very quickly for sure no one went to find a fault,
so they will know which line tripped but the cause may remain a
mystery, lightning strike, bird strike, who knows ?
Al

Allan Mac wrote:
On Jun 27, 7:11 pm, "David WE Roberts" wrote:
"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in
...









David WE Roberts wrote:
Just had a power outage for a couple of minutes.
It came back on before I got bored enough to demonstrate my
independance from the National Grid (short term) by tethering
my laptop to my mobile for Internet access.
However I would like to know what caused it and if it is likely
to happen again before I power up the desktop.
Location is coastal Suffolk.

Is there any online resource which carries immediate reports of
power outages and causes?

Nothing obvious going on to explain this one - no thunder
storms and the like.

Mm. I phoned up am emergency number when it happened to me.

Online resources telling you you cant get online are as useful as
tits on a bull.

Given that a substantial minority of the public now have a smart
phone which
can access web sites, then t'Internet is a valid route for a query.
Unless of course the cellular masts and the local telephone
exchange are
down, in which case a phone number isn't much use either.

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

If the line reset very quickly for sure no one went to find a fault,
so they will know which line tripped but the cause may remain a
mystery, lightning strike, bird strike, who knows ?

Sometimes turned off to make a new connection or repair a known fault
according to the bods that visit the substation in my garden.

--
Adam

On Wed, 27 Jun 2012 19:41:27 +0100, ARWadsworth wrote:

Is there any online resource which carries immediate reports of
power outages and causes?

Try your local DNO's web site. Ours, ENW, has a page with major(*) outages on
it but I think it's a manual update rather than a link from the automatic
monitoring.

Given that a substantial minority of the public now have a smart
phone which can access web sites, then t'Internet is a valid route
for a query. Unless of course the cellular masts and the local
telephone exchange are down, in which case a phone number isn't much
use either.

The mobile networks fail as the power goes or very quickly afterwards, very
few cells have anything more than "safe shutdown" backup power arrangements.
BT telephone exchanges are all equipped with large lead acid batteries and
even the garden sheds out in rural areas also have gensets.

If the line reset very quickly for sure no one went to find a fault,
so they will know which line tripped but the cause may remain a
mystery, lightning strike, bird strike, who knows ?

Sometimes turned off to make a new connection or repair a known fault
according to the bods that visit the substation in my garden.

If it was off for only a second or two that would have been an autorecloser
tripping and resetting due to a bird strike or wet branch getting blown up.

Long enough to find a torch or think "is it going to come back" is more
likely to be switching to route supplies around a fault or possibly switching
feeds to the local 33kV substation. When they switch between the 33kV main
feed and 11kV backup to the local substation here it takes a couple of
minutes.

When the power goes off here I sort out torches and shutdown computers on the
UPS then call the DNO. It's about 50:50 if they have had a call or been
automatically alerted already but they can normally look it up on the system
and say "oh, yes we do have a high voltage fault".

(*) Major being something that affects more than 50 to 100 customers or has
been on going for a long time.

--
Cheers
Dave.

In message , ARWadsworth
writes
Allan Mac wrote:
On Jun 27, 7:11 pm, "David WE Roberts" wrote:
"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in
...









David WE Roberts wrote:
Just had a power outage for a couple of minutes.
It came back on before I got bored enough to demonstrate my
independance from the National Grid (short term) by tethering
my laptop to my mobile for Internet access.
However I would like to know what caused it and if it is likely
to happen again before I power up the desktop.
Location is coastal Suffolk.

Is there any online resource which carries immediate reports of
power outages and causes?

Nothing obvious going on to explain this one - no thunder
storms and the like.

Mm. I phoned up am emergency number when it happened to me.

Online resources telling you you cant get online are as useful as
tits on a bull.

Given that a substantial minority of the public now have a smart
phone which
can access web sites, then t'Internet is a valid route for a query.
Unless of course the cellular masts and the local telephone
exchange are
down, in which case a phone number isn't much use either.

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

If the line reset very quickly for sure no one went to find a fault,
so they will know which line tripped but the cause may remain a
mystery, lightning strike, bird strike, who knows ?

Sometimes turned off to make a new connection or repair a known fault
according to the bods that visit the substation in my garden.

Commonly on the *half hour* time here. In these days of reliable
telecoms, I don't know how they issue permits to work but 35 years ago,
they had to be signed off in advance of some mutually agreed time.

They are under grounding some 11kV overheads through my land this summer
so I will find out:-)

regards


--
Tim Lamb

Copper wire theft...

Brian

--
--
From the sofa of Brian Gaff -

Blind user, so no pictures please!
"Allan Mac" wrote in message
...
On Jun 27, 7:11 pm, "David WE Roberts" wrote:
"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in
...









David WE Roberts wrote:
Just had a power outage for a couple of minutes.
It came back on before I got bored enough to demonstrate my
independance
from the National Grid (short term) by tethering my laptop to my mobile
for Internet access.
However I would like to know what caused it and if it is likely to
happen
again before I power up the desktop.
Location is coastal Suffolk.

Is there any online resource which carries immediate reports of power
outages and causes?

Nothing obvious going on to explain this one - no thunder storms and
the
like.

Mm. I phoned up am emergency number when it happened to me.

Online resources telling you you cant get online are as useful as tits
on
a bull.

Given that a substantial minority of the public now have a smart phone
which
can access web sites, then t'Internet is a valid route for a query.
Unless of course the cellular masts and the local telephone exchange are
down, in which case a phone number isn't much use either.

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

If the line reset very quickly for sure no one went to find a fault,
so they will know which line tripped but the cause may remain a
mystery, lightning strike, bird strike, who knows ?
Al

On Wed, 27 Jun 2012 21:50:41 +0100, Brian Gaff wrote:

Copper wire theft...

As it was only off for short while, attempted copper wire theft.

--
Cheers
Dave.

One issue seems to be that at least at present, bt lines do not go down when
the power fails, but cable company and of course voip and probably cellular
all tend to.

Brian

--
--
From the sofa of Brian Gaff -

Blind user, so no pictures please!
"David WE Roberts" wrote in message
...

"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
David WE Roberts wrote:
Just had a power outage for a couple of minutes.
It came back on before I got bored enough to demonstrate my independance
from the National Grid (short term) by tethering my laptop to my mobile
for Internet access.
However I would like to know what caused it and if it is likely to
happen again before I power up the desktop.
Location is coastal Suffolk.

Is there any online resource which carries immediate reports of power
outages and causes?

Nothing obvious going on to explain this one - no thunder storms and the
like.

Mm. I phoned up am emergency number when it happened to me.

Online resources telling you you cant get online are as useful as tits on
a bull.


Given that a substantial minority of the public now have a smart phone
which can access web sites, then t'Internet is a valid route for a query.
Unless of course the cellular masts and the local telephone exchange are
down, in which case a phone number isn't much use either.

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

In article , Brian Gaff
scribeth thus
One issue seems to be that at least at present, bt lines do not go down when
the power fails, but cable company and of course voip and probably cellular
all tend to.

Brian


Only known our VM service go down when Padrig was a bit too enthusiastic
with a digger once;!..

Mobile nets very solid backup round this way..
--
Tony Sayer

"David WE Roberts" writes:


"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
David WE Roberts wrote:
Just had a power outage for a couple of minutes.
It came back on before I got bored enough to demonstrate my independance
from the National Grid (short term) by tethering my laptop to my mobile
for Internet access.
However I would like to know what caused it and if it is likely to happen
again before I power up the desktop.
Location is coastal Suffolk.

Is there any online resource which carries immediate reports of power
outages and causes?

Nothing obvious going on to explain this one - no thunder storms and the
like.

Mm. I phoned up am emergency number when it happened to me.

Online resources telling you you cant get online are as useful as tits on
a bull.


Given that a substantial minority of the public now have a smart phone which
can access web sites, then t'Internet is a valid route for a query.
Unless of course the cellular masts and the local telephone exchange are
down, in which case a phone number isn't much use either.

I see very few power outages in Edinburgh, but curiously I too had an
outage today, from a little after 12:30 to almost exactly 13:00.
I suspect this was scheduled.
The UPS kicked in, so no problem there (and even without that, Linux
recovers pretty well from power failure, though it takes some time to
check/fix filesystems) but the Virgin phone line was dead so I couldn't
call anyone.
--
Windmill, Use t m i l l
J.R.R. Tolkien:- @ O n e t e l . c o m
All that is gold does not glister / Not all who wander are lost

On 27/06/2012 19:11, David WE Roberts wrote:

Unless of course the cellular masts and the local telephone exchange are
down, in which case a phone number isn't much use either.


Phone would be OK ... exchanges have their own power .. so analogue POTS
not affected.
3G masts are a different issue.

In article , Rick Hughes
scribeth thus
On 27/06/2012 19:11, David WE Roberts wrote:

Unless of course the cellular masts and the local telephone exchange are
down, in which case a phone number isn't much use either.


Phone would be OK ... exchanges have their own power .. so analogue POTS
not affected.
3G masts are a different issue.

A lot of them do have battery standby power back up I know of several
round here that do and can't remember a time when Vodafone failed in the
area..
--
Tony Sayer

In article ,
tony sayer wrote:
In article , Rick Hughes
scribeth thus
On 27/06/2012 19:11, David WE Roberts wrote:

Unless of course the cellular masts and the local telephone exchange
are down, in which case a phone number isn't much use either.


Phone would be OK ... exchanges have their own power .. so analogue POTS
not affected.
3G masts are a different issue.

A lot of them do have battery standby power back up I know of several
round here that do and can't remember a time when Vodafone failed in the
area..

we had a 3 week failure locally - probably not due to mains, but there
seemed no urgency in getting it back up.

--
From KT24

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.18

David WE Roberts wrote:
Just had a power outage for a couple of minutes.
It came back on before I got bored enough to demonstrate my independance
from the National Grid (short term) by tethering my laptop to my mobile
for Internet access.
However I would like to know what caused it and if it is likely to
happen again before I power up the desktop.
Location is coastal Suffolk.

Is there any online resource which carries immediate reports of power
outages and causes?

Nothing obvious going on to explain this one - no thunder storms and the
like.

Cheers

Dave R

number is/should be 0800 783 8838

--
To people who know nothing, anything is possible.
To people who know too much, it is a sad fact
that they know how little is really possible -
and how hard it is to achieve it.

"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
David WE Roberts wrote:
Just had a power outage for a couple of minutes.
It came back on before I got bored enough to demonstrate my independance
from the National Grid (short term) by tethering my laptop to my mobile
for Internet access.
However I would like to know what caused it and if it is likely to happen
again before I power up the desktop.
Location is coastal Suffolk.

Is there any online resource which carries immediate reports of power
outages and causes?

Nothing obvious going on to explain this one - no thunder storms and the
like.

Cheers

Dave R

number is/should be 0800 783 8838


Thanks - I discounted ringing a phone number because
(a) A large number of other people are likely to be competing for the same
number
(b) It isn't an emergency. If it was off for some time then I might try
that.

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

On Wed, 27 Jun 2012 19:08:45 +0100, "David WE Roberts"
wrote:


"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
David WE Roberts wrote:
Just had a power outage for a couple of minutes.
It came back on before I got bored enough to demonstrate my independance
from the National Grid (short term) by tethering my laptop to my mobile
for Internet access.
However I would like to know what caused it and if it is likely to happen
again before I power up the desktop.
Location is coastal Suffolk.

Is there any online resource which carries immediate reports of power
outages and causes?

Nothing obvious going on to explain this one - no thunder storms and the
like.

Cheers

Dave R

number is/should be 0800 783 8838


Thanks - I discounted ringing a phone number because
(a) A large number of other people are likely to be competing for the same
number
(b) It isn't an emergency. If it was off for some time then I might try
that.

If it's the same number I call (I can't recall) then you just get a
recorded message saying something like "we know about the problem but
we've no idea what caused it or when it will be fixed".
--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) If a man stands in a forest and no woman is around
(")_(") is he still wrong?

Mark wrote:

On Wed, 27 Jun 2012 19:08:45 +0100, "David WE Roberts"
wrote:


"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
David WE Roberts wrote:
Just had a power outage for a couple of minutes.
It came back on before I got bored enough to demonstrate my
independance from the National Grid (short term) by tethering my laptop
to my mobile for Internet access.
However I would like to know what caused it and if it is likely to
happen again before I power up the desktop.
Location is coastal Suffolk.

Is there any online resource which carries immediate reports of power
outages and causes?

Nothing obvious going on to explain this one - no thunder storms and
the like.

Cheers

Dave R

number is/should be 0800 783 8838


Thanks - I discounted ringing a phone number because
(a) A large number of other people are likely to be competing for the same
number
(b) It isn't an emergency. If it was off for some time then I might try
that.

If it's the same number I call (I can't recall) then you just get a
recorded message saying something like "we know about the problem but
we've no idea what caused it or when it will be fixed".

EDF^H^H^H UKPower do at least answer the phone - only to claim they know
nothing, despite the fact that I know[1] it is the main 66(or 33)kV
substation that has tripped and I'm pretty sure they will have remote
monitoring and possibly remote control on that.

[1] The whole village goes out and the substation has twin HV feeds, so
unless something really unlucky happens to take both out...

--
Tim Watts

In article ,
Tim Watts wrote:
Mark wrote:

On Wed, 27 Jun 2012 19:08:45 +0100, "David WE Roberts"
wrote:


"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
David WE Roberts wrote:
Just had a power outage for a couple of minutes. It came back on
before I got bored enough to demonstrate my independance from the
National Grid (short term) by tethering my laptop to my mobile for
Internet access. However I would like to know what caused it and if
it is likely to happen again before I power up the desktop. Location
is coastal Suffolk.

Is there any online resource which carries immediate reports of power
outages and causes?

Nothing obvious going on to explain this one - no thunder storms and
the like.

Cheers

Dave R

number is/should be 0800 783 8838


Thanks - I discounted ringing a phone number because (a) A large number
of other people are likely to be competing for the same number (b) It
isn't an emergency. If it was off for some time then I might try that.

If it's the same number I call (I can't recall) then you just get a
recorded message saying something like "we know about the problem but
we've no idea what caused it or when it will be fixed".

EDF^H^H^H UKPower do at least answer the phone - only to claim they know
nothing, despite the fact that I know[1] it is the main 66(or 33)kV
substation that has tripped and I'm pretty sure they will have remote
monitoring and possibly remote control on that.

[1] The whole village goes out and the substation has twin HV feeds, so
unless something really unlucky happens to take both out...

UK power certainly knew about my recent outage 10 minutes in. and that was
at very localised one.

--
From KT24

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.18

They are strange indeed. The worst ones are those that are just a blip, less
than a second but can scramble hard drives and generally cause problems to
most domestic devices with computers inthem like tvs. Grrr.
Brian

--
--
From the sofa of Brian Gaff -

Blind user, so no pictures please!
"David WE Roberts" wrote in message
...
Just had a power outage for a couple of minutes.
It came back on before I got bored enough to demonstrate my independance
from the National Grid (short term) by tethering my laptop to my mobile
for Internet access.
However I would like to know what caused it and if it is likely to happen
again before I power up the desktop.
Location is coastal Suffolk.

Is there any online resource which carries immediate reports of power
outages and causes?

Nothing obvious going on to explain this one - no thunder storms and the
like.

Cheers

Dave R

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

On 27/06/2012 18:57, David WE Roberts wrote:
Just had a power outage for a couple of minutes.
It came back on before I got bored enough to demonstrate my independance
from the National Grid (short term) by tethering my laptop to my mobile
for Internet access.
However I would like to know what caused it and if it is likely to
happen again before I power up the desktop.
Location is coastal Suffolk.

Is there any online resource which carries immediate reports of power
outages and causes?

Nothing obvious going on to explain this one - no thunder storms and the
like.

In rural areas fed by overhead cables there are numerous minor
interruptions everyday. Many are not even noticed by the consumer and
are dealt with by automatic control. The only way to avoid these
glitches is to have your equipment connected via a UPS. This will not
only deal with the actual cuts of short duration, but also voltage
fluctuations.


Peter Crosland