When there are large storms or natural disasters that knock power out across whole towns or areas, how do the power companies figure out where to fix to restore power?
In: Technology
They have monitoring on each feed, which covers maybe 500 houses, by internet or radio. Their control room can tell on a computer screen which feeds are down. They send out a guy in a pickup to start at the substation and follow that feed until they find a tree, pole or wires down. They report in by radio so control can send out the right kind of truck to repair it, with the poles and enough men to handle that. Then they keep driving to see if there’s anything else broken.
Once it’s repaired, they turn the breaker on again and see if the guy missed anything. This is why the lights often blink on and off before they finally come back on. There was another line down that they missed.
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