Lupo
Nov 5 2006, 11:07 am
Apparently this power outage was the worst one in France in the last 30 years and it had it´s origins in Germany although the exact cause is as yet still unknown.
Bid to overhaul Europe power gridQUOTE (BBC News)
An overload in Germany's power network triggered outages leaving millions without electricity on Saturday night. [...] Power failed first in Cologne, Germany, before shutting down across parts of France, Italy, Spain and Austria. Belgium, the Netherlands and Croatia were also affected.
My point in posting this though is to show that this can happen here in Europe as well - something that people said could never happen here while they were making smug remarks about the power outage in the U.S. last year (or was it the year before?)
Tomasino
Nov 5 2006, 11:09 am
QUOTE (Lupo @ Nov 5 2006, 12:07 pm)
while they were making smug remarks about the power outage in the U.S. last year (or was it the year before?)
That in America was intentionally induced by Enron and Vivendi to drive up the price of energy.
Maybe for the same reason here.
Duh.
DDBug
Nov 5 2006, 11:10 am
People can be very complacent. I grew up with power outages and such - it can happen anywhere, and with extremes in weather will become more common.
EDIT - what? That's a theory I've never heard.
Lupo
Nov 5 2006, 11:14 am
I grew up with them as well. I´m still used to knowing where the candles/flashlights are in case the power goes out. Personally I find them romantic as long as they´re not too long (and food in the fridge/freezer starts to perish.) It´s a chance to see how it used to be. Break out the board games, cards, etc. Better yet open up a bottle of wine or beer and ponder the mysteries of the universe.
Jeeves
Nov 5 2006, 11:27 am
The thought takes me back to the seventies and doing homework by candlelight. And what can be more romantic than candlelight?
Johnny Norfolk
Nov 5 2006, 11:50 am
It will be very interesting to find out what caused these power cuts.
The Germans I work with are always telling me they never have power cuts.
I have been working in Germany for 4 years now and have never had a power cut at home or work.
About 5 years ago we had a power cut at my then essex home for 5 days. I finaly got about £100 compensation about 3 years later.
Bell the cat
Nov 5 2006, 11:54 am
From the article:
QUOTE
Power companies said the outage started in Germany with a surge in demand prompted by cold weather
Lupo
Nov 5 2006, 11:59 am
Getting caught with your pants down in any weather is cold.
sarabyrd
Nov 5 2006, 12:00 pm
It's worth while reading German media to find out the cause:
Knapp am totalen Black-Out vorbeiQUOTE
Nach den Worten eines Vorstandsmitglieds des französischen Zulieferers RTE ist Europa nur knapp einem völligen Blackout entgangen. Ausgelöst worden sei die Kettenreaktion durch eine Panne bei zwei Hochspannungsleitungen mit jeweils 400.000 Volt in Deutschland, sagte RTE-Vorstandsmitglied Pierre Bornard in der Nacht zum Sonntag. Dieses riesige Energiedefizit in Deutschland habe die Stromerzeugung in Europa aus dem Gleichgewicht geworfen.
Um einen völligen Blackout zu vermeiden, schalten Computer „brutal“ den Strom für einen Teil der Konsumenten ab, sagte Bornard. Damit werde ein völliger Zusammenbruch abgewendet. Bornard sprach in diesem Zusammenhang vom „Kartenhaus-Phänomen“. Die Elektrizität sei gegen 22 Uhr ausgefallen. Zwischen 22.30 und 23.00 Uhr sei die Panne wieder behoben gewesen, hieß es bei RTE.
The outage was a chain reaction caused by a disturbance in two high power lines carrying 400,000 Volt each. The resulting energy deficit threw the complete electricity system off balance.
The computers "brutally" switched off to prevent a complete black-out. The outage began around 10 pm and was remedied between 10.30 and 11 pm.
This is the first massive outage in the German grid that I can recall not caused by storms, blizzards or other natural phenomena.
DDBug
Nov 5 2006, 12:04 pm
What caused the one that hit munich about 8 or 9 years ago? I remember it was a Thursday evening and Alexander was about 2 and asleep and I was working when it happened. Must have been early summer, all my neighbors were out on their balconies chatting and drinking wine shortly thereafter. It was a nice night, even though I did lose a lot of work...
Pirulero
Nov 5 2006, 12:23 pm
As it's in Europe can we please call it a power CUT, or some other more suitable term...outage is just horrible...
sarabyrd
Nov 5 2006, 12:29 pm
Power cut to prevent massive outage? Everyone is happy that way, I suppose.
Pirulero
Nov 5 2006, 12:30 pm
Blub?
Jeeves
Nov 5 2006, 12:33 pm
Even as a European I have to admit that a power cut is something active: like the way they did it in '73 to conserve coal in a planned way.
An outage, horrible thought the word may be, is something that just happens, whether as the result of computers squabbling or birds shitting on the line.
Pirulero
Nov 5 2006, 12:35 pm
Really? I always hear people refer to the "power cut" whenever the power is off. I haven't ever heard " oh dear, the cooker doesn't work, oh, there must be a power outage..."
rick_de
Nov 5 2006, 12:37 pm
QUOTE (Pirulero @ Nov 5 2006, 12:23 pm)
As it's in Europe can we please call it a power CUT, or some other more suitable term...outage is just horrible...
Why use a word with one syllable when you can use one with two?
Jeeves
Nov 5 2006, 12:44 pm
.. or the circuit breaker (previously: fuse) has blown...
Yeah you're right. I would never say "power outage". Not part of my vocabulary. But I know what it means and it seems more of a "we don't know what happened but the power is off" kind of thing. The sort of thing that happens more often on a large scale the other side of the Atlantic (just a for instance) so that's why the word from the other side of the Atlantic seems more appropriate here...
sarabyrd
Nov 5 2006, 1:07 pm
Alternative: The power is down.
Allershausen
Nov 5 2006, 1:20 pm
QUOTE (Jeeves @ Nov 5 2006, 12:44 pm)
.. or the circuit breaker (previously: fuse) has blown...
To be fair, the term, the fuse has blown, used to mean that the little piece of fuse wire in the electrical box hidden under the stairs had blown and needed to be replaced, whereas a circuit breaker can just be switched back on.
We get a power cut in bad weather at least once a year in my village, but it usually comes back on before the locals start looting!
Jeeves
Nov 5 2006, 1:31 pm
Erm, yes, I know
Point: language moves on with technology.
SeK612
Nov 6 2006, 9:38 am
Interesting. My electricity died on Saturday in Munich. It only last around 10 mins or so though and since there wasn't a mass of complaints I figured it was just very localised.
Tomasino
Nov 6 2006, 9:58 am
My anecdote involves doing the nightly sports reports and then the VPN lost connection to the company servers after 21:00.
After unsuccessfully trying many times to re-establish the connection, hopped in the car to go to the always open bank kiosk to transfer the dough for those golf clubs
Ula was selling. As I was entering the numbers, the computer crashed (but not the house lights), and my card was stuck in the machine.
The service line advised me to pay EUR36 to freeze the card, but I told them it is beyond my control and why should I pay this if I lost the card in a machine at Raiffeisen.
Anyway, they just called me to come pick up the card.
Lupo
Nov 6 2006, 10:04 am
At least you weren´t stuck in an elevator...
sarabyrd
Nov 6 2006, 10:44 am
Last black-out I remember in Munich must have been around 1991. I was at the
PEP in Neuperlach, just leaving matter of fact, and decided to take the bus home instead of the
U-Bahn. Boy, was I lucky. Haggis senior and I walked past dark stores with people fuming behind the electricly controlled doors, unable to leave, and crowds coming up from the pitch black U-Bahn stop.
DDBug
Nov 6 2006, 11:23 am
No - this blackout was definately after 1997. (between 1998 and 2000) However, it may have only been parts of Munich. This part of
Schwabing was dark for a few hours that evening.
sarabyrd
Nov 6 2006, 11:31 am
The Neuperlach one was local as well - one side of the street was down (Neuperlach), the other just fine (Berg-am-Laim).
German firm admits blackout fault:
QUOTE
German electricity company E.ON has confirmed it was to blame for the blackout that left swathes of western Europe without power at the weekend.
E.ON said its grid had overloaded after it switched off an electricity line over the river Ems to allow a cruise ship to safely pass through.
The knock-on power cut left millions without electricity across Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal.
willum
Nov 6 2006, 9:33 pm
They had to shut down certain high-voltage overhead cables, so that the liner "Norwegian Pearl" could get out of the docks in Papenburg on the Ems. This led somehow to a domino-effect across Europe. That was the reason given in NDR yesterday evening and in today´s paper. Watch out, though, they´re trying again this evening!
We didn´t have a black-out here though!
I remember one christmas, the power had been off for quite some time. Just over a week I believe. On christmas day the power came back on, my mom shoved the turkey in the oven everything got cooked the food goes out on the table and the power goes back out. That was the longest power outage I can remember, it was if I remember correctly over two weeks long. Fantastic Christmas.
Jeeves
Nov 7 2006, 8:10 am
QUOTE (willum @ Nov 6 2006, 9:33 pm)
Watch out, though, they´re trying again this evening!
They tried and they succeeded.
Would have been a bit of an embarrassment if they'd got it wrong again.
canaryman
Nov 7 2006, 8:35 am
A couple of my friends that come from Ghana told me that if there is a big party going on and you do not get and invite, you can go to the power station and for a "fee" they will cut the power to the area
I remember the power cuts in the UK during the 70s but they were due to the employees going on strike for more money, longer holidays and less working hours. The plus point, seen through a childs eyes, was that you had to use candles to walk around the house. The minus point was that power strikes seemed to happen just prior to football matches
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