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Power Failure Reports


edmundp

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Hi all,

I thought it might be a good idea to start a thread where we can report power failures.

I have heard of sporadic failures especially the last few days at regular intervals despite the authorities saying it is not load shedding.

I am in Pretoria and have seen my mains go down to 215V in the day and up to 247V at night. Something is amiss....

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None that I am aware of in Northern Suburbs of Cape Town.

I bet you, if there is load shedding, it will never be admitted before the elections. Ever. Because Zuma has gone and visited Eskom and he told them no more loading shedding.

The SABC will not report on it either.

So lets report it here. Google picks up the site.

 

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Great idea Ed.

I've had 2 days of 4+ hours outage. Eskom direct issues... my voltage hovers around 245v but since the last outage its 225v or so....

I think we are in for issues... NOT loadshedding though 😈

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My gran experienced "outages" in Meyers park Pretoria on regular intervals. Week before last it was 8 hours at a time at night for the whole week.I thought about getting her a small system for her lights because get this; they arent allowed to burn candles at night. i cant afford it right now so camp lights will have to do.

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My gran experienced "outages" in Meyers park Pretoria on regular intervals. Week before last it was 8 hours at a time at night for the whole week.I thought about getting her a small system for her lights because get this; they arent allowed to burn candles at night. i cant afford it right now so camp lights will have to do.

Heard of that yes. We are right next door but nothing here yet. Equestria was also out as well as large parts of Silverton.

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1 minute ago, The Terrible Triplett said:

Is there a possibility that with varying volts that equipment's lifespan are reduced?

Yes. Geysers, kettles, most of your low voltage stuff that uses a down converter of some kind, incandescent lamps, etc... those don't care, might glow a little dimmer or take a bit longer to do the job. The things that get hurt are electrical motors, usually compressors for freezers and fridges.

We also lost a substation somewhere in Cape Town yesterday and had the whole Somerset West in darkness for around 45 minutes. Some areas were down even longer, because you always have more stuff tripping down stream when the power comes back on, so some people were down over two hours.

(And I sat there watching a lady on facebook complain about not being able to watch Game of Thrones, throwing out blasphemy and acting all wronged... and I thought to myself, keep your trap shut, because even though she's at home, not working, in the middle of a Monday afternoon, deprived from watching some popular crap for one hour, in other words, FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS... it's just not worth it pointing it out :-) ).

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21 minutes ago, DeepBass9 said:

Wow, I didn't know Eskom was so variable. Can anyone monitor the Hz as well? Would be interesting to see how that varies.

Hz has been very stable. 49.9 or 50Hz which is pretty good.

V now varying between 235V and 214V.

Regards

Mark

 

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So you thought power was the only hassle...

Quoted from our local newspapers Facebook page...

 

* WATER CRISIS UPDATE AT 11.30AM TUESDAY 28 JUNE - Power outage slows recovery plan
From Makana Municipality:
Status of water availability in Grahamstown West
In the early hours of this morning, Tuesday 28 June, the Waainek area west of Grahamstown experienced an electricity outage. This affected the Howieson’s Poort pump station which feeds the reservoirs in the western side.
Because the pumps stopped running for several hours, the western reservoirs, as well as inside and outside lay dams, drained.
The pump stations started operating at 7am. However, it will take up to 8 hours to raise the reservoirs levels. Water will be released from the reservoirs at 5pm.
Residents are urged to use water sparingly.
Water supply to the Grahamstown East
 

By 10pm yesterday, one pump at the James Kleynhans water treatment works resumed pumping and delivering water at 60% of the normal capacity. The other motors that were sent to East London to dry out are in their way back to the plant. It is expected that the second motor will be fitted by 10pm tonight and that the plant will run at its normal capacity.
Makana Municipality wants to express its gratitude to its staff and partners, Amatola Water and the Department of Water and Sanitation who have worked tirelessly to solve this crisis.

* WATER CRISIS UPDATE AT 10PM MONDAY 27 JUNE - Some good news for now
From Makana Municipality: The pump is running but at a minimal rate. We will get water on low pressure for the time being until both pumps are fully aligned. Makana Municipality and Amatola Water teams believe that by Wednesday evening (28/06/2016) things will get back to normal. We apologise for this inconvenience, the municipality is doing all it can to restore water to the community.

* UPDATE AT 6PM MONDAY 27 JUNE - Plans to resolve and manage the crisis: http://www.grocotts.co.za/…/water-outages-grahamstown-27-06…
 

*UPDATE AT 7AM MONDAY 27 JUNE
Twe of the three motors re being loaded for repairs. The third pump will now be installed with the new motor. Testing of the electrical system will have to be done before the pump can start running.

 

*UPDATE AT 11PM SUNDAY 26 JUNE:
From acting MM Riana Meiring: The water has been pumped out. The gland follower on pump 2 failed at the non-drive end. Amatola Water is busy removing the motors and will fit a spare motor in position 3 which will be able to delive 75l/sec. This is half of what the James Kleynhans pump station normally delivers.
WATER EMERGENCY IN ‪#‎GRAHAMSTOWN‬
Senior officials from Makana Local Municipality rushed out to the James Kleynhans water treatment works and pump station at Glen Melville Dam Sunday 26 June, after an employee arrived at work in the morning to find the pump station flooded. A key staff member at the facility was still being sought nearly 12 hours later in a bid to establish how the situation occurred. The immediate emergency is the supply of water to Grahamstown East, which is currently without water. Water tankers are on their way via the Department of Water and Sanitation to ensure residents receive water. At the same time, water on Grahamstown West must be managed so that there are sufficient reserves for the influx of people when the ‪#‎NAF‬ National Arts Festival starts on Thursday. Infrastructure Director Dali Mlenzana says Makana will be shutting off water from tomorrow except from 5am-7am and 5pm-7pm. Other agencies coming to Makana's assistance are Amatola Water and the Sarah Baartman District Municipality. "We are treating this as a disaster," said Acting Municipal Manager Riana Meiring.

WATER DELIVERIES TO GRAHAMSTOWN EAST START 7AM MONDAY 27 JUNE.

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1 hour ago, plonkster said:

not being able to watch Game of Thrones

That is when you go online and say to her that you have not had power for weeks, no funds, and the kids are sleeping with wet blankets, you have no house.

Tends to shut them up quick.

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Just now, The Terrible Triplett said:

That is when you go online and say to here that you have not had power for weeks, no funds, and the lids are sleeping with wet blankets, you have no house.

Tends to shut them up quick.

Actually, it's worse. I forgot the best part: She is at home on a Monday afternoon, with nothing to do but watch popular television, something that is only on SATELLITE TV, and only on the PREMIUM OFFERING, and wasn't showing at that time of the day so she was likely using a PVR DEVICE. In other words, richest of the rich... complaining about a one-hour power outage in one of the best run cities in the country. And then using language like "G*d this is irritating"... just completely pushes all the wrong buttons.

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1 hour ago, The Terrible Triplett said:

At what Hz do the devices start experiencing traumatic failures, or is that not an issue?

Once again, depends. Things like switch mode power supplies (which drives most electronics now) converts the AC into DC anyway (before using an HF stage to step it down), so none of those appliances are going to care. Your geyser and your kettle won't care either, it will happily run from DC too. Your alarm clocks will likely run slow, but even those appliances with small iron transformers probably won't care. Appliances with universal motors (eg washing machines) won't care either. Once again, the things that will care are the induction motors. Those appliances will draw more current, heat up, and may be damaged.

At what point would they get damaged? Well, how long is a piece of string? How much margin did the Chinese manufacturer design in? Rule of thumb would say more than 10% either way is looking for trouble, but in general, you'd much rather be 10% over than 10% under. So I'd say no less than 49, no more than 55.

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