Monday, September 03, 2012

They are kidding

I read this morning that Iberdrola distributes approximately 3.4 million supply points throughout the Valencian Community through an infrastructure which consists of more than 130 substations, 23,300 transformer stations, 3,400 kilometres of high and very high voltage lines and over 57,000 kilometres of low voltage  lines.

The company say they have invested more than 1,500 million euros during the past ten years in distribution facilities, which has helped reduce incidents in supply by 59%. They reckon that individuals and businesses no longer suffer from the major blackouts of the past.

So how come we still have short power cuts on a regular basis and the lights fluctuate regularly at nighttimes? Surely it can’t be the cabling to and around the estate which is no more than 9 years old. My UPS shows a graph of the voltage which is nominally at about 245 volts but can dip to about 210 volts and go up to 255 volts in a short space of time.

As I have said before, for a desktop computer a non interruptible power supply is a must. My desktop machine and monitor are connected to the power supply via an APC Smart UPS 750. Ideally, the satellite box and TV would be connected via one as well. The fluctuations in voltage are bad enough - a sudden disconnection can do a lot of harm to computers etc.

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