Thursday, 23 May 2024
Living without electricity
A very interesting link from commenter microdave. It's a document called "Living without electricity", a detailed report on the the effects of Storm Desmond on Lancaster in 2015.
raeng-living-without-electricity.pdf
Over the first weekend in December 2015, Storm Desmond brought unprecedented flooding to North Lancashire and Cumbria, including to parts of central Lancaster. At 10.45pm on Saturday, 5 December, electricity supplies to 61,000 properties in the city were cut. Electricity was progressively restored from 4.30am on Monday but was cut again to most areas at 4pm that evening. 75 large diesel generators were brought into the city and connected to local substations which allowed restoration of supplies over the next few days. By Friday, 11 December, the situation was back to normal...
The loss of power quickly affected many other services that people take for granted. Most mobile phone coverage was lost within an hour; although most landline phone services were available, many people who had replaced their traditional handsets with cordless phones were unable to connect. The internet was lost over most of Lancaster and, even where it was available in the street, electricity was not available to supply domestic routers and Wi-Fi hubs. Electronic payment systems were unavailable and most ATM machines did not work. The local TV booster station lost power, which also affected digital radio (DAB) services...
Mobile phone systems did not hold up. On most networks, the base station (the transmitter that provides the radio signal to communicate with phones in that area) is powered from the local 230V electricity supply. Some have a battery back-up that continues to provide a service for an hour or two but few, if any, cope with the 30-hour loss or supply experienced over much of Lancaster. Inevitably, the loss of a mobile signal resulted in the inability to send or receive text messages or to use 3G and 4G internet services.
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3 comments:
Blackouts aren't that uncommon where I live in the Wiltshire countryside. In 37 years here, we've literally had dozens. Years back, one lasted for four days, but that was before mobile phones and we still had an ordinary landline. One in February last year lasted 48 hours. The problem is the electricity comes in overhead and bad weather can bring down lines, and the four-day blackout was a lightening strike on a transformer mounted on a pole somewhere in the field. So, I long ago bought a generator and I also have a leisure battery with an inverter. The latter is connected initially and if the blackout is so long the battery runs flat, I fire up the genny. It's part and parcel of country life!
Cheers Yet Another Chris
Always keep your car well-fuelled. I've always scorned the dolts who run the tank down to nearly empty.
On the other hand, was I a dolt to sell my rifle decades ago?
Chris - interesting, my brother who lives near Seattle has similar problems with overhead power lines and bad weather. He has a generator too. I suppose for most of us blackouts are too infrequent to prompt much preparation. Although we could manage for a while, we could to more with Net Zero looming.
dearieme - we always keep our cars well-fuelled, especially the diesel. I've never owned a gun apart from airguns decades ago and I wasn't a very good shot then, so I don't think I'd now regret having sold a rifle.
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