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On Friday evening (20th October), during storm Babet, we had a power cut. It was restored in approx 2-3 hours, inconvenient but not really a big deal.
In the following days, and still happening, all our lights were flickering/dimming, apart from the one lamp that doesn't have a LED bulb,. The microwave can take up to 6 (SIX!!!!!) minutes to heat a tin of peas, and the oven is laughing at my wife's attempt to make cake.
I called Northern Powergrid, who are responsible for the cabling etc, and someone was out within 3 hours to check things.
He told me that they are supposed to supply electricity at 230V, with a lower tolerance of 217V, and a high of 250V-ish. we are getting 194V - 205V. So way below their bottom line. Also said that the chances of finding the fault, in the miles of cable, is very small, and that they'll only realistically find it when it eventually blows.
So, what is my next step, NP again or my supplier, Shell Energy ?(really don't have much confidence with Shell as they are transferring their energy business to Octopus soon, apparently) Do I have any claim for compensation? The epilepsy inducing lights are a real pain, but the slow peas and poor cake is pushing me over the edge
^Just to clarify, other people in your road/ area are experiencing the same?
Ah, forgot about that.
Yes, although only around 1/3rd of the street have the same issues as us. The other 2/3rds has their supply coming in from the opposite end, which isn't affected at all.
We had similar symptoms after a storm last year and it turned out there was a power line down locally causing the drop in voltage.
Get back on to NP and tell them that you’re still having problems.
Scottish Power blurb for reference says theyll endeavour to fix within 6 months
https://www.spenergynetworks.co.uk/pages/voltage_changes.aspx
As for compensation, seems to be only for power loss.
Get back onto the network operator and see if they have some equivalent procedure.
andy5390
Full Member
Ah, forgot about that.Yes, although only around 1/3rd of the street have the same issues as us. The other 2/3rds has their supply coming in from the opposite end, which isn’t affected at all.
Isee.👍
I mean, in reality NP are saying that they simply don't want to spend the money to diagnose and remedy the problem, that's what it amounts to.
Id also be concerned about any high cost electronics you have in the house, PC's, TVs etc too. They don't take kindly to electrical issues like this, even with surge protected leads being used.
If everyone experiencing problems turns on their ovens / hobs / showers / EV chargers at the same time, Northern Powergrid will be able to identify the fault very quickly from the blue flash, bang, and smoke rising from the cable.
How much of your overhead cabling is visible? Might just have a tree nearby. Can you walk the length of it back to the transformer?
* anecdotal evidence but it worked for my street when we all tried charging our cars at the same time
any high cost electronics you have in the house, PC’s, TVs etc too.
TV doesn't seem to show any symptoms, and there is no surge protection in place for anything. Something to seriously consider I suppose.
How much of your overhead cabling is visible?
It's all underground cabling in my area
For reference: My house is the red dot, the yellow area is what is still affected in my street, pink area at the bottom is what was also cut off at the same time as me (that I could see). No idea if they still have issues, might go and knock on a few doors later. The rest of my street was not affected by the cut at all, or since.
It shouldnt be that difficult to narrow it down in that area - I had assumed from your first post you were talking about a much more spread out/rural type affair.
Go round your neighbours, have a word with them, get them all to complain/chase the issue. Power in numbers.
Or as above, get everyone to turn their ovens, hairdryers and fan heaters all at once and see how long it lasts!
The one in three houses thing is to do with how three phase distribution is brought down to two phase domestic supply. Most streets will have three circuits with roughly every third house typically sharing a circuit.
I’d be insisting this be treated as an outage if it was my supply.
Just about to post that, sounds like one phase is down. They should know this if that's the case.
Update: Yesterday, the council turned up to fix the street lamp outside my house. Closely followed by 3 Powergan vans, a truck with a mini digger on the back and at least 3 separate workers in cars.
They had some sort of scrum in the street for 10 minutes, then went off in different directions. Power went off for around 45 minutes, and then back on......,. properly
Apparently, our supply has been swapped over to a different sub station, that doesn't suffer from water ingress.
I'm now waiting to see if the extra load of 300+ houses will overload this alternative sub station we've been moved to 😂
Let there be light
Glad it's fixed, we have a similar problem with our water supply, due to leaks they can't (be bothered to) find they decided to turn our water pressure down with the result the shower often cuts out due to low pressure and filling anything big like a bath takes and age.
@andy5390 - WWSTD? - some of them on here text/ring me.
I’m an engineering manager at Northern Powergrid.
During a storm there will be some much going on that the official channels (the ones you used) are best, but outside of that if the issue comes back PM me.
The way you describe it I can think of a few things that might cause it (I suspect I know, but I’ve been wrong before). Hopefully that’s it sorted but let me know if there’s an issue.
@igm it all looks good so far. Bright lights last night, microwave works properly, and my wife is currently (no pun intended) getting the electricity bill back up again with the oven on at full bore.
* Northern Powergrid, not Powergen as stated last post