Asking this because my area literally just had a power outage while it’s drizzling rain outside. During the worst storms my area has had we somehow never lose power but during small rainfalls or even the hottest and nicest days of the summer, we lose power. Besides lines being damaged by strong winds, what usually causes power outages?
In: 2
Overloading is one cause, wires can only carry so much power before failing, so safety systems cut power if the current passes over a threshold, hot summer days are typically when everyone is using a lot of power for AC, so it’s not all that uncommon
A power outage just means there has been a problem with the system.
Many outages will be weather related – a spike in ac usage due to hot weather perhaps, or a storm causing damage to the power lines and transmission equipment.
There can also be spikes or unexpected demands for other reasons – a big holiday or event causing heavy use, or unexpected draw from industrial or other large scale users.
But equally it can also happen on a small scale – if a transformer fails or there is another unexpected fault in your local substation that can cut power to an area until it is repaired, or it could even be something as simple as a digger accidentally digging through an underground power line while doing work somewhere…
So you know that when things get hot they expand right? As more demand is put on the power lines they heat up and they can expand so much they begin to droop down. This can cause lines to touch trees and ground out sections of the grid. When that happens other lines pick up that demand plus what was already on them. Now they droop down even more. This can cause cascading outages. There’s a really good video from Pratical Engineering on YouTube that explains this much better than I can.
This video explains how the power grid works.
This one explains the 2003 cascading power outage. https://youtu.be/KciAzYfXNwU
And this one is the Texas winter power outage. https://youtu.be/08mwXICY4JM
Normally it’s either animals getting on equipment and causing a short circuit or bad drivers knocking down poles.
It could be animals, equipment failure, construction accident, tree limb, or bad driver. Since you said it’s light raining in your area there’s a chance the storm is much more severe in another part of your area. If it takes out a couple transmission lines then that could knock out your power.
Asking this because my area literally just had a power outage while it’s drizzling rain outside. During the worst storms my area has had we somehow never lose power but during small rainfalls or even the hottest and nicest days of the summer, we lose power. Besides lines being damaged by strong winds, what usually causes power outages?
In: 2
Overloading is one cause, wires can only carry so much power before failing, so safety systems cut power if the current passes over a threshold, hot summer days are typically when everyone is using a lot of power for AC, so it’s not all that uncommon
A power outage just means there has been a problem with the system.
Many outages will be weather related – a spike in ac usage due to hot weather perhaps, or a storm causing damage to the power lines and transmission equipment.
There can also be spikes or unexpected demands for other reasons – a big holiday or event causing heavy use, or unexpected draw from industrial or other large scale users.
But equally it can also happen on a small scale – if a transformer fails or there is another unexpected fault in your local substation that can cut power to an area until it is repaired, or it could even be something as simple as a digger accidentally digging through an underground power line while doing work somewhere…
So you know that when things get hot they expand right? As more demand is put on the power lines they heat up and they can expand so much they begin to droop down. This can cause lines to touch trees and ground out sections of the grid. When that happens other lines pick up that demand plus what was already on them. Now they droop down even more. This can cause cascading outages. There’s a really good video from Pratical Engineering on YouTube that explains this much better than I can.
This video explains how the power grid works.
This one explains the 2003 cascading power outage. https://youtu.be/KciAzYfXNwU
And this one is the Texas winter power outage. https://youtu.be/08mwXICY4JM
Normally it’s either animals getting on equipment and causing a short circuit or bad drivers knocking down poles.
It could be animals, equipment failure, construction accident, tree limb, or bad driver. Since you said it’s light raining in your area there’s a chance the storm is much more severe in another part of your area. If it takes out a couple transmission lines then that could knock out your power.
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