Did the electricity flicker when you were using it? That little disruption can indicate that you averted a longer outage.
BLIPZ
The flashing microwave clock sacrificed precision to save the food in your refrigerator, so keep that in mind the next time your power goes out and on.
These “momentary outages” give the impression that the reliability of the electric service is weak, but it isn’t. Automated hardware deployed throughout the overhead electric system is intended to permit brief outages to help prevent longer, continuous interruptions to your electricity.
An illustration of how it functions is given below:
Power lines are damaged when a tree branch touches them. The damaged lines’ electricity is briefly cut off by automated equipment after it detects the problem, but only briefly. Throughout that period, the branch loses connection with the lines. Moments later, the same apparatus automatically determines if the fault is still there and, if so, restores power. Neither a branch contact nor a fault caused a long-lasting outage.
A larger window of time for transitory faults to resolve is achieved by some automated equipment repeatedly opening and “reclosing” the circuit. But even so, this window is only a minute or so long. The power goes off for a few brief periods in a sequence for customers, but if the fault is fixed, the electricity returns. The cycle may continue (several times)
What happens if the problem doesn’t get fixed?
Returning to the tree branch scenario, if a little branch lands on power wires and remains there, additional equipment rapidly shifts the electrical flow away from the issue to restore service to as many customers as possible (dependent on circuit design). Less clients will face any kind of prolonged outages because of this restoration automation technique.
An expensive, ineffective, and significantly more disruptive option is available. Throughout the overhead electric system for decades, reclosing equipment has been commonplace. Without it, even minor issues—like the small tree branch—would necessitate sending a worker in a truck to inspect and fix any problems. There would be a temporary loss of electricity for customers whose services were dependent on the impacted equipment.
“Nearly a million customer service interruptions are averted by automatic recloses in total every year.”
So when you need to reset the microwave’s clock, it’s possible that a system created to stop a far worse interruption is to blame for this tiny inconvenience.
