Power outages

 Happy new year all.

Did anyone else have extended power issues during the heatwave? On Boxing Day we relocated our family dinner from my sister's in Darlington to our place in Sorrento on the basis we have a pool and aircon. 15 minutes before they start arriving the aircon dies - brownout. Some lights working and the odd powerpoint. Needless to say not impressed! Luckily there was no hot food planned. No estimated time for rectification which is not much fun when you're sweltering as the ceiling fans wouldn't work either.

Got up on Monday, packed the boat and pissed off to Rotto. Power came on briefly that afternoon and then the other phase went out soon after until Tuesday afternoon. Nearly 48 hours without sufficient power to keep food cold, run AC or fans is no joke in 40 plus heat. Friends nearby had the same issues but that was a separate WP incident. I don't think it's a secret that Perth summers are hot so I think the scale of problems aren't really acceptable with over 34,000 customers (probably 100,000 people) impacted. There are no doubt FW members that know a lot more so I'm interested in your thoughts.

On the plus side Rotto was bloody awesome!

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 PGFC member and lure tragic


scotto's picture

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Date Joined: 21/04/08

power

Wed, 2022-01-05 08:57

a good few years ago, our power got wiped out in Bibra Lake for a couple of days. not much consolation, but western power reimbursed us approx $100 dollars a day, for each 24 hour period the power was out (which was 3 days total/$300). it was  to cover costs of spoilt food, etc, but I (luckily) had a good little yammy generator to run the fridge/freezers and TV. 

 

most of our neighbours only got $100 though as they all thought it was only a one-off payment, but i rang around a bit, and got them to cough up for each day it was out. 

sea-kem's picture

Posts: 14833

Date Joined: 30/11/09

 Dave we had similar at

Wed, 2022-01-05 09:06

 Dave we had similar at Seabird (surprised the power actually stayed on) surge on Xmas morning 

Mate next door to me up there who's a sparky  said the park was only running on 215 volts instead of 240-250

Everyone was having problems with appliances not running correctly

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Love the West!

davewillo's picture

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Date Joined: 08/09/16

 Yeah I know a lot of people

Wed, 2022-01-05 11:46

 Yeah I know a lot of people had issues Andy. We are getting the $160 payment but unfortunately because I was away and my retic didn't come on, about 1/3 of my lawn is completely dead. Didn't see water for the whole week of the heatwave and it's f@!#$d now!

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sea-kem's picture

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Date Joined: 30/11/09

 It must have been bloody hot

Wed, 2022-01-05 12:27

 It must have been bloody hot down here mate, mine had the retic on and still got burnt. 

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Love the West!

Posts: 1084

Date Joined: 21/05/12

 situations like this where i

Wed, 2022-01-05 14:21

 situations like this where i love my genset, use it once every 2 - 3 yrs to camp with - rest is all solar, 

had a 3 day out about 6 years ago- even got the $100, didnt lose a thing in the freezer etc. lost about 600 in aquirium fish-had toput ina  special  claim - got about 300 of that back

no more aquirium 

sea-kem's picture

Posts: 14833

Date Joined: 30/11/09

 A mate of mine lost all his

Wed, 2022-01-05 15:07

 A mate of mine lost all his big Koi over Xmas, basically got baked. He had them in a big pond tank but water temp must've just hit a critical point. He was devo.

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Love the West!

davewillo's picture

Posts: 2223

Date Joined: 08/09/16

 I've ordered one of the 1300

Wed, 2022-01-05 16:18

 I've ordered one of the 1300 watt lithium power stations from iTechworld but can't pick it up until next week. That would have solved a lot of the problems. When you use your genny at home, do you just run everything to a power board plugged into the genny?

https://itechworld.com.au/collections/lithium-power-stations/products/solar-generator-kit-itech1300p-power-station-200w-solar-blanket-kit-solar-adapter 

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 PGFC member and lure tragic

jighead's picture

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Date Joined: 03/02/12

Same

Wed, 2022-01-05 15:35

 The big silver perch in my aquaponics had been in there 11 years and they all got cooked.

davewillo's picture

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Date Joined: 08/09/16

 The loss of fish really

Wed, 2022-01-05 16:21

 The loss of fish really sucks. When I was at Rotto we went into the clothing store (some dickhead went on the island with his thongs on the boat at Narrow Neck ) and they were adding bags of ice to the huge aquaruim they have.

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 PGFC member and lure tragic

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Ita $80

Wed, 2022-01-05 17:10

 Te officla rate is $80 per day but due to the extended nature they bumped it to $160 this time.

Posts: 4561

Date Joined: 01/02/10

 I'm in the middle of big

Wed, 2022-01-05 20:53

 I'm in the middle of big lithium battery set up in the caravan with the plan to run leads to the house fridges if it comes to that. Well, that's part of the selling point to the wife anyway. 

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Does anyone know where the love of god goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours?

Swompa's picture

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Date Joined: 14/10/12

 What battery are you going

Thu, 2022-01-06 07:06

 What battery are you going with? 

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Date Joined: 01/02/10

 Lithium battery wholesaler.

Thu, 2022-01-06 07:44

 Lithium battery wholesaler. Perth based company with good back up. 600ah all up. 

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Does anyone know where the love of god goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours?

Swompa's picture

Posts: 3757

Date Joined: 14/10/12

Hearing the inside word, the

Thu, 2022-01-06 07:05

Hearing the inside word, the generation side of things was extremely concenerd with the ability for the grid to stay upright on christmas night. WIth a few assets down, it was touch and go that the whole lot would trip though I think plenty of people took advantage of the dinner outside option and the load was higher on boxing day.

 

davewillo's picture

Posts: 2223

Date Joined: 08/09/16

 It tells me that they need

Thu, 2022-01-06 10:45

 It tells me that they need to have a hard look at the system capacity. To me it was just an annoyance but that would be so much worse for some people using medical equipment, C-Pap machines etc.

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 PGFC member and lure tragic

Swompa's picture

Posts: 3757

Date Joined: 14/10/12

Spot on. A few new generators

Thu, 2022-01-06 11:53

Spot on. A few new generators coming online shortly, it was just unfortunate timing for some forced outages across the SWIS

 

 

 

 

Posts: 515

Date Joined: 23/04/11

 MV/HV switching was also

Fri, 2022-01-07 07:14

 MV/HV switching was also heavily impacted by the fire restrictions. In many cases, crews had to sit back and just wait until bans were lifted before switching programs could be implemented, to start repairs.