Why do you lose power for only a few seconds at a time in a storm?

Question

We have been having really bad thunder and lightning here where I live all day and I cannot figure out why we would be continually losing power but it only goes out for maybe 2 seconds at a time. What causes this short term power loss? Any ideas?

Answer 1

There are protections built in on many levels for the various things that can negatively affect the integrity of the power grid.
They are "breakers" that trip when any of the following conditions are sensed in a feeder (local distribution ) circuit, sub-trans or transmission line:
Over / under current
Over . under voltage
over / under frequency
and others.

Most likely your situation involves lightning strikes to the lines, which raise both the current and voltage of a circuit, and trip a relay in a substation that opens a breaker to isolate the line from the grid. Lightning arrests bleed off most of the strike energy ground. Most breakers have "AR"'s (Auto re-closers), that set a timer when the breaker trips, and attempts to restore the line hoping that the condition cleared itself. It will do this for three events of increasing length, and then "lock out" and set an alarm at the local control center. Then the circuit has to be patrolled for downed wires etc, and then restored manually.

Answer 2

If the weather is strong enough it can force small amounts of water into 'SUB STATION' components in the power grid - This causes the 'Earth Leakage Circuit Breakers' to activate. The system is fully automated and will conduct a reset test after an average of 2 seconds.- This avoids the power staying off in your area for unnecessary amounts of time and the company the cost of sending someone in to check on it every time there is a 'Trip' in the system. - If your power doesn't come back on their is more than likely a line fault or a lightning strike close to the sub station as lightning will confuse electronic systems if it strikes close enough and the computer program can lose its memory. Remember - lighting charges from the ground as well. a sub station has alot of earthing conductors that would be more attractive than trees, so if there is an 'Earth Fault' at the time of a strike, that is a good mix. Hope this helps.

Answer 3

The most likely cause for such events is the failure of a circuit breaker in your nearest power stations. When a breaker detects a surge due something like a lightning strike, it fails, preventing damage to both transformers and the items in you and your neighbors house. Barring something like a catastrophic hit, these systems reset after few seconds as the surge is most likely past, then the power comes back on.

My office is near a local transformer station, and during one hot day, we got to see a cascade of failures. One ot the transformers overloaded, driving a continuous surge, that set off multiple circuit breakers in a row over about 20 seconds. The lights kept flashing on and off, and we heard lots of loud bangs. Finally the whole system overloaded and shut down.

Answer 4

Throughout the entire power system there are circuit breakers. These operate automatically and are there to protect various components such as the generators and generating plants, the transmission lines, transformers and switching stations.

Many of the breakers, especially those protecting the high capacity parts of the network will reset automatically after a short delay. These breakers will normally try to reset a fixed number of times (say three) before giving up and requiring some human intervention.

Answer 5

Automatic equipment, called protective relays, detect faults such as arcovers caused by lightning strikes. Upon detection of a fault, the affected line segment is momentarily isolated (power is removed), then re-energized. If the fault has cleared, the power stays on, otherwise another de-energization occurs. After a third trial, if the fault has not cleared, the line segment is taken out of service until repairmen can determine the cause of the problem.

Answer 6

A power surge where the potential and current through the line is not consistent could result in power loss. If some part of the power infrastructure, like a transformer or power line, is damaged, it may cause such a surge.

Answer 7

When the power goes out, it may be due to a fault (short circuit if you will) that opens a protective switch. These switches are programmed to then reshut within a few seconds to provide as continuous a power source as possible.

Answer 8

We Are Currently having Very bad lightning, in the midwest. The power outages have to do with the lightning. if It was just rain, it wouldnt happen. Your power lines get affected by the lightning

Answer 9

Back in the olden days the power outage would have to be manually taken care of but now in our hi-tech age I think it is automatically taken care of by a quick back up system...kinda like a reset button.

Answer 10

It is because with the extra surges the thunderstorms are providing, the transformers have to reboot in order to except the storm potential hazardous energy.