How does a power outage occur and can it happen and how could it possibly be so consistant?

Question

I am attempting to understand how the electricity current could go out ( have a black out ) so often there.

Where this would be is Phili[[ines, in which I pertain my question to. Thank you!

Answer 1

Power outages are a cascading affect due to poor or old infrastructure. Many of todays power plants were built when we were young or even before we were born, so back then, lets say the 1960's for sake of argument, these new power plants whether they are coal fired, hydro electric or nuclear powered were deamed sufficent for the population base of the time. Now fast forward 40 plus years, the population has increased exponentially, the amount of manufacturing facilities has increased by over half and the the amount of housing required to place the new found population has increased 5 fold. Top it off with all the electronic technology available on todays market that require electricity and you have a recipe for disaster. All of this population increase, all the additional electricity needs have tripled or more and the electric output of the plants has increased but the exsisiting generators and the infrastructure of said power plants has basically remained the same. Consumption of power increases and you have brown outs, small localized power outages isolated to specific grids. The days get hotter and longer more power is needed to run A.C. units, lights, and all the goodies of the 21st. century, brown outs start occuring on a regular basis, first one grid then anothr grid, then yet another grid, until the draw is so great that the entire system suffers from a total shutdown. The trickle affect has now preceded it self with a full blown power outage. Power surges have spiked causing thouands of dollars worth of damage at the plant not to mention pole fires caused from over heated transformers that have caught fire due to its "cooling" oil becoming so hot that it spontaneously combusts, burning the tops of poles and and wires thus adding to the frustration of a already bad situation. This is just a few of the casual relationships associated with power outages. I am sure if you searched the web you could find hundreds more. I Hope this helps with some of you questions. later. Gary.

Answer 2

How Do Power Outages Occur

Answer 3

In the Philippines, consistent blackouts are the result of excess load, not enough generation, and overloaded transmission & distribution equipment.

Often, there does not have to be a storm or other catastrophic event to result in blackouts. Many times, it is just a single outage (overloaded transformer or line, perhaps on a very hot or very cold day) that cascades into system-wide blackout.

In well-built, well-kept, modern power systems, we design and operate such that any given contingency will not cause cascading failure. Under 2-contingency cases, we allow more load to be shut off, but the system is required to remain stable (no system-wide blackouts).

Answer 4

there are 2 causes of a power outage. the plant itself has a malfunction, and can no longer produce. which isnt all that common.

or the powerlines are damaged or create a shortcircuit. interupting powerflow. this is especially common in countries where powerlines are aove ground. (dont know about hte phillipines) Powerlines can easily be damaged by storms, lightning, traffice fallnig trees etc.

poor quality cabling can also be aproblem, in poorer countries this is often the case.

Answer 5

Maybe they shut the power off on purpose, for lack of fuel, or lack of capacity. Maybe they furnish power to different areas based on their importance to the economy.

I know they do it in many of the countries that used to be part of the USSR.

If you talk to people from Kazakhstan and others they say that the non-industrial power supply is very inconsistant, and is only on for a few hours per day.