Monday
Oct202014
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Light blogging
Oct 20, 2014 Blogs I'm away for a few days this week, so blogging will be light to non-existent. I have a couple of things lined up to post in my absence, and Today's Moderator (TM) may post topical threads too.
Reader Comments (12)
It's these half-term holidays that do it, you know. Kids keeping getting in the way of serious stuff.
Still, if you have to skive off somewhere I hope it keeps fine for you. Forecast not looking that good. Nor this side of the Channel either I'm afraid.
Didcot - likely winter power outages
With the news of the major fire at Didcot on top of several other losses to the grid, it seems we may already have crossed the threshold where it is not possible to keep the lights on.
On the basis that our stupid politicians never listened to us in the past and it is far simpler to boot them out at an election than try to teach them rudimentary engineering, there's no point campaigning on this and so I now think what we must do is start warning people. (or at least think through who should be warned)
So, I've written a "draft" article trying to lay out some of the issues and potential advice for ... basically my neighbours.
I would appreciate any comments.
Here is the link: http://scottishsceptic.co.uk/2014/10/20/power-resilience/
And unless it is not clear, you may copy, edit or whatever the article on your own blog without reference to the original.
Mike
Julia has got her bonus again this year.
http://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2014/10/20/julias-bonus/#more-10811
Excellent post Mike. I've tweeted a link to it.
Thanks RoyFOMR, thanks.
Get a spare battery for your mobile phone and keep it charged.
Depending on location it may still be possible if unlikely to get a signal on a laptop. If so then there is at least a minimal emergency measure available.
MikeJackson, one of my big unknowns is whether and how long the mobile network will work without power. It's then a question of "how likely is it that someone will have an accident on the day(s) the power fails.
But when you start thinking about it - if all the traffic lights and street lights are also off - then the chances of an accident becomes quite high! Then the question is how long will the hospital power run for (assuming they all have power).
In the past I would have said that the chances of everything failing together is very low.
But when we've got delusional politicians and dishonest civil servants with their heads stuck ...
There's a new common factor which is the incompetent government. In other words, if they ignored the obvious things like these power outages - it is also extremely likely that they've let every other system fall to pieces and so it is more than likely we'll experience multiple failures of multiple systems at the same time.
both Mikes
I think the telcos (and even the mobile operators) have sufficient emergency generators in place to handle grid outages. They have to, in order to support the financial networks and server farms that they run and manage. However, you as consumers still have to have batteries in your appliances to use their networks...
Will my gas hob work or won't it?
Mike H
I'm not taking bets on anything or sticking my neck out by making predictions. Fortunately (at the moment) I am in deepest Burgundy and right next door to the village shop and with an adequate supply of wood so less likely to be suffering from the occasional outage anyway.
At a guess I would go along with diogenes and assume that there is some sort of back-up system to the phone masts but I don't know whether that is the case or not. Certainly the relatively local outages we have suffered here over the last few years due to thunderstorms and the odd passing tornado (and that was fun!) have not affected mobile coverage. But presumably it depends on how long.
Messenger
Your gas hob ought to work but you'll need to light it with an old-fashioned device called a match!
Mike J
My assumptions were based on the UK. However, I would assume that France telecom has similar requirements, since they want to replace the City,,,so the handset will keep working but maybe your battery is flat
On the subject of phones, I learnt that (during the Christchurch Earthquakes) the best phone was an old fashioned land line that doesn't require mains power. This was usually working when the cordless and cellular ones were out of action.
I also have a generator that has seen a lot of action. Mine's petrol but diesel is cheaper to run. The domestic CHP (combined heat and power) units look good too. Richard North at EURef has recently posted stuff about CHP. The Japanese have domestic units that can generate heat and electricity during grid outages