Power Protection and UPS Blog

East Lothian Today ran a piece about how on October 15 2,000 households were affected by a major power outage. The initial suspect was a plane striking a pylon but this was quickly thrown out as a theory. Scottish Power now think that the evidence points towards a bird strike. I am reminded of Alfred Hitchcocks ‘The Birds’. For the full story click here.

This paper has just appeared in the latest LPQI e-cast. It attempts to describe the electrical supply system using the analogy of a Tandem Bike and does a good job of it. Click here for the complete pdf paper.

Survive’s 16th Annual Conference takes place on 16/17th November this year. The conference provides a unique opportunity of meeting and networking with high level Business Continuity Management decision makers. There are normally around 200-250 delegates and the target audience includes well known names such as: Alliance & Leicester, Societe Generale, Lloyds TSB, BBC, Bank of England, FSA, BSkyB, Deuche Bank, AXA, B&Q, Prudential, Scottish Power, HBOS and Sainsburys. Off course a key topic at this year’s seminar is the response of organisations to the July bombings in London and the lessons that can be applied.

The BBC are running a power failure in Africa competition which closes on 31st October 2005. They want to hear from people whose lives have be changed by power failure.

We seem to be heading for an energy crisis this winter as a result of negative NAO conditions. The prediction is that there will be power cuts as fuel for power stations is used to heat homes rather than power industry.

Sam Orton - one of our sales team came across a briefing by Malcolm Pittwood the Energy Manager at FHP ESS who provides interesting comment on the UK fuel crisis three decades ago and how much we use energy today. Malcolm provides some interesting insights and figures such as the fact that within a decade building energy usage has increased by 65%!

On the subject of fuel crisis here is an interesting blog on the UK Treasury’s Tax Policy on fuel.

I am growing used to the idea of windfarms. Just off the coast of Prestatyn is the largest sea based wind farm for the UK. It is now part of the landscape rather than the original eye sore envisaged. I found this website page on a proposal for the biggest windfarm in the world to supply a quarter of London’s homes. This wind farm would put in place about 270 turbines offshore where Thames joins the North Sea, around 60 miles from London. The planning application was submitted by Shell WindEnergy, in association with E.ON and an Anglo-Danish company, Core, for a £1.5 billion wind farm London Array project. Click for more information.

Here’s another example of a complete power loss. This time over 19,000 people were affected in Stratford and because of wet weather, engineers from Central Networks could not complete the repairs till the next day. The piece was in the Stratford-upon-Avon Herald - “THOUSANDS of properties across Stratford district were plunged into darkness on Wednesday 12th October after a power line came down on the A46 between Stratford and Billesley. Electricity suppliers Central Networks said 19,000 customers lost power for about an hour at around 7pm. Stratford was blacked out and the Royal Shakespeare Company had to to cancel its permformances. Because of the wet weather engineers were unable to complete repairs and the A46 remained closed overnight. It was expected to be reopened later on Thursday”.

This is our log of electrical facts and figures. Each time we find a new one we post it here. Some of the data we discover are quite thought provoking. If you find any information on electrical power usage please let us know.

Nuclear power plants provide about 17 percent of the world’s electricity. Some countries depend more on nuclear power for electricity than others. In France, for instance, about 75 percent of the electricity is generated from nuclear power, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Previously Entries
- UK energy consumption increased by 32 percent between 1970 and 2001, and a further 19 percent between 1990 and 2001.
- Power failures are increasing: the National Grid is only 99.98 percent reliable, which accounts for nine hours per year of downtime.
- In 2004, the UK became a net importer of fuel for the first time since 1992. Primary fuel consumption is not being met by indigenous production (source DTI, Digest of UK Energy Statistics 2005).
- In 2004, the industrial sector was the largest consumer of electricity.
- The average number of customer interruptions per 100 customers Average Customer Minutes Lost (CMLs) across Great Britain was 86.2 in 2002/03.
- On 15th August 2003, 55 million people in the USA were plunged into darkness by a massive power failure.
- 50% of all electricity generated is used to power microprocessor based devices.
- 70% of power disturbances are created locally.
- A typical computer system is subjected to more than 125 potentially devastating power disturbances each month.
- Every hour of downtime for a typical mid-sized network costs its owner £18,000.
- One-third of all data loss is caused by power problems.
- Half of all computer problems are traced to the power line.
- The overall cost of these problems to businesses in Europe is estimated to be in a range of £13-20.3 billion per year.

Over half the generated electricity in the world goes towards powering micropocessor devices. At Riello UPS we work hard to develop the cleanest (low harmonics) and most efficient UPS available. This is the type of contribution that we as power protection equipment manufacturers can make towards the World’s emergent energy problems.

Nuclear power plants provide about 17 percent of the world’s electricity. Some countries depend more on nuclear power for electricity than others. In France, for instance, about 75 percent of the electricity is generated from nuclear power, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. This recent article from the Green Party argues against one of the possible energy generation solutions: “NUCLEAR power is expensive, dangerous - and won’t solve the problem of reducing greenhouse gas emissions enough to meet the UK’s obligations, the Green Party has warned. In a detailed submission to the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee, the Greens argue we need ‘a major culture change’ in the way we produce and consume energy rather than new nuclear power stations”. For more information click here.

Here is another example of an overhead electrical storm causing a power failure and disruption to operations. This time at Heriot-Watt University. Power Failure at Edinburgh Campus: Following the major power failure earlier today, caused by storm damage off campus, power has now been fully reinstated to the Edinburgh Campus. The Campus has been open as normal since Tuesday 11 October. However, there has been some disruption to the delivery of computing services and to the University website.