What usually causes power outages when weather conditions are not bad?

Question

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

Answer 1

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

Answer 2

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