India power grid collapse 620 million left without power

[Skilless]

I'm certainly do not disparage anyone's job especially someone I don't even know.  However,  All I've said is that it is a apparent that here locally normal and obvious maintaince is not being done at a cost of reliable service.  In the last month I have lost power at least six times..  Sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes for hours.

As promised, just a few sites from my drive home.  In each picture, whether visible or not, tree branches are laying directly on the wires...

















These are all within a seven mile trip on a main state highway.  Many within five miles of a Consumer's Energy maintenance hub.

[SIM]

Thanks for proving my theory in a public manner.

Some of those wires are telephone and cable tv lines. Others are called "tree-wire" Care to guess why?

Your opinion of a bandaid may actually be an instance of a working design.

Basically, while there may actually be a problem there, You Sir, wouldn't know one way or the other.

Picture # 1 appears to be several telephone trunk lines......not the power companies
#2 - is secondary conductors.
#3 - appears to be "tree-wire" again. I'll explain that in a minute. Just so you have time to try and figure out the why and what definition.
#4 - open wire secondary or tree-wire with cable tv below and telephone trunk on bottom.
#5 - Same as #4 but a different shot of trees.
#6 - secondary lines on top, cable tv and telephone trunk on bottom.
#7 - same as #6 but a different pole.
#8 - telephone trunk/services and cable tv lines.

So as an answer to your concerns and adamant attempt at finding fault with the power company. Once again you are skill-less.

Secondary power lines are generally low voltage lines that bring 240volts to a home. The two "hot" legs of the line are insulated and wrapped around a common neutral. Its called "triplex".
Secondary lines can lay in a tree for YEARS without giving so much as a flicker of trouble. the big problem with those secondaries in trees is squirrels! So what do you propose? Charge the power company for not beginning a squirrel eradication plan? I would LOVE to see a plan like that simply because the bulk of the outages I see on a daily basis are caused by SQUIRRELS!

Tree-wire: Its primary lines that are designed to be used in heavily forested areas. The primary cable is encased in a "plastic" shell that prevents contact between the cable and trees. if that line is broken and hit the ground, it is designed so that the cable itself will burn into the plastic covering and isolate the voltage.

Open wire secondary: secondary lines that are generally NOT insulated. In my area they are normally found in stacks of three and may span several poles distance to provide power. A single transformer will power these lines for a distance, then there is a break with another transformer providing voltage from there on several more spans.

Im not going to explain cable tv lines to you as that is NOT my area of expertise, nor will I get into telephone trunk lines.

Your photos are not the best so I reserve the right to be wrong on some of these......... But I bet Im not.

Next?

[SIM]

Right now I feel like this is necessary folks, please forgive me....


I WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYONE WHO IS PATENTLY STUPID ENOUGH TO APPROACH A POWER LINE OR SUPPOSED POWER LINE!

That stuff is dangerous enough when working with rubber gloves and gear made for the task, so be smart and call the power company when you see lines down, hanging low, or burning. If its a wire, leave it alone. If you THINK it might be electrical, leave it alone and call the power company.

Electricity is the only thing you cant see, taste or feel until its too late.

[CAP1]

Right now I feel like this is necessary folks, please forgive me....


I WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYONE WHO IS PATENTLY STUPID ENOUGH TO APPROACH A POWER LINE OR SUPPOSED POWER LINE!

That stuff is dangerous enough when working with rubber gloves and gear made for the task, so be smart and call the power company when you see lines down, hanging low, or burning. If its a wire, leave it alone. If you THINK it might be electrical, leave it alone and call the power company.

Electricity is the only thing you cant see, taste or feel until its too late.

 dude......some of us at least you don't have to say that to. 

[SIM]

On a further note....


Secondary lines are generally left until such time as a problem arises. Its actually pretty simple to understand why secondary lines have trees on them and nothing is done.

Trees grow daily....right? Limbs expand and lengthen.

If a company spent resources and time chasing every instance of a tree limb on secondaries, what would it cost? Id bet it would break the company is a short period. So why should the power company run after every tree limb on secondaries?

[ROC]

So why should the power company run after every tree limb on secondaries?

Especially since it's usually the property owner, city, or some local landscaping and lighting district that is responsible for the trees, and may, "MAY", contract back to the utility to service them, depending on their budget which might be simply nothing more than an every 10 year trimming.  Ya, but it's always easier to simply blame the greedy power company before actually looking at the real answer

[Gustav]

simply because the bulk of the outages I see on a daily basis are caused by SQUIRRELS!

Squirrels have to charge their cameras somehow?  

I also got a lot of respect for people who work on the lines, I know for Hurricane Irene they were even nice enough to take notice that we were running a generator and actually went to our door to inform us the power was back.

Its not a job I think I could do, especially getting to witness how a transformer can pop. (I happened to be walking under the pole it was sitting on at the time too, nearly had to change my pants )

[ink]

Thanks for proving my theory in a public manner.

Some of those wires are telephone and cable tv lines. Others are called "tree-wire" Care to guess why?

Your opinion of a bandaid may actually be an instance of a working design.

Basically, while there may actually be a problem there, You Sir, wouldn't know one way or the other.

Picture # 1 appears to be several telephone trunk lines......not the power companies
#2 - is secondary conductors.
#3 - appears to be "tree-wire" again. I'll explain that in a minute. Just so you have time to try and figure out the why and what definition.
#4 - open wire secondary or tree-wire with cable tv below and telephone trunk on bottom.
#5 - Same as #4 but a different shot of trees.
#6 - secondary lines on top, cable tv and telephone trunk on bottom.
#7 - same as #6 but a different pole.
#8 - telephone trunk/services and cable tv lines.

So as an answer to your concerns and adamant attempt at finding fault with the power company. Once again you are skill-less.

Secondary power lines are generally low voltage lines that bring 240volts to a home. The two "hot" legs of the line are insulated and wrapped around a common neutral. Its called "triplex".
Secondary lines can lay in a tree for YEARS without giving so much as a flicker of trouble. the big problem with those secondaries in trees is squirrels! So what do you propose? Charge the power company for not beginning a squirrel eradication plan? I would LOVE to see a plan like that simply because the bulk of the outages I see on a daily basis are caused by SQUIRRELS!

Tree-wire: Its primary lines that are designed to be used in heavily forested areas. The primary cable is encased in a "plastic" shell that prevents contact between the cable and trees. if that line is broken and hit the ground, it is designed so that the cable itself will burn into the plastic covering and isolate the voltage.

Open wire secondary: secondary lines that are generally NOT insulated. In my area they are normally found in stacks of three and may span several poles distance to provide power. A single transformer will power these lines for a distance, then there is a break with another transformer providing voltage from there on several more spans.

Im not going to explain cable tv lines to you as that is NOT my area of expertise, nor will I get into telephone trunk lines.

Your photos are not the best so I reserve the right to be wrong on some of these......... But I bet Im not.

Next?

a man who knows what the hell he is talking about.....I don't but he certainly does

[MiloMorai]

Here the power companies trim back trees all the time on their lines by Law (Electricity Act, 1998).

TREES CAUSED THE AUGUST 14, 2003 BLACKOUT: A tree on a right-of-way in Ohio came into contact with a power line and triggered the blackout of August 2003. The North American Electricity Reliability Corporation (NERC) investigation* following the blackout found that if the company that owned the line had maintained its right-of-way, the blackout would have been prevented. As a result of the blackout investigation, compliance to international standards is now a mandatory requirement for all North American utilities.

[CAP1]

should add that although i said just the power companies, i should've been more clear.....whoever owns the cables/wires

[zack1234]

You would think that power companies would be geared up to deal with trees that are near power cables

The most common problem seems to be trees

[ghi]

The link below is self refreshing; cosmic rays are off chart again :headscra
http://www.bartol.udel.edu/~takao/test_frac.html

The Earth was hit by a CME in last 24 hours also, but was weak;http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/rt_plots/kp_3d.html

If you look at the time of the 1st grid failure from your link ;
02:48, 30 July 2012 (+05:30)-
 20:30, 31 July 2012 (+05:30)
India Standard time zone: UTC/GMT +5:30 hours;
 
 here in a link  University of Delaware,in UTC time http://neutronm.bartol.udel.edu/spaceweather/welcome.html
space weather monitoring showing the cosmic rays density; This cosmic rays charts  are not monitoring the activity from the Sun;
See the chart from 15;00 UTC to 24:00 UTC july 29th some kind of strong EMP from deep space hit the Earth, about same time with first grid failure in India ;

(Image removed from quote.)