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re: is a standalone power system more reliable than "the grid"?
26 aug 2000
mike nash wrote:
>...my grid supplier has been reliably giving us short outages each week
>for years now. for awhile we could reset our clocks by their sunday
>morning dropouts.
a few years ago, the power plant on innishmore (one of the irish arun
islands an hour west of galway bay) had two diesel generators serving
a few thousand people, and a control panel with a broken synchronizer.
it had been broken for a long time. the swiss manufacturer was out of
business. but the operator still needed to switch generators every few
days for oil changes, etc. he would calmly start the idle diesel, let
it come up to speed, disconnect the grid from the running one, and then
connect the grid to the one he had started. the switchover took less
than a second. the islanders were used to it. they mostly spoke gaelic,
and didn't have many computers.
>the power wasn't off long, just long enough to have every electronic
>device in the house blinking...
>...i figure most [homepower] folks don't "count" scheduled maintenance,
>updates, etc. btw, when power company officials have been questioned
>about these "blips" they usually respond that there is nothing that can
>be done "economically" to correct the situation. i've heard this about
>three different utilities between alabama and georgia. so do these blips
>count as "planned downtime"?
maybe not, since the customers never knew when they'd happen or how long
they would last, and they might have been avoided with better equipment.
nick
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