What is a "blackout"?

[Fiestyfish]

I keep seeing in the papers about possible "blackouts" this winter due to the energy issues but what will this entail? Short power cuts? Power cuts that last days? No heating?

You should watch the documentary Britain Blackout on YT. It’s really good. There is a US version as well, not as good.

@Fiestyfish

It's not gonna happen. It's all scaremongering.

Also, people can blame Brexit as much as they like, but shit like this has happened before in the past. Blaming Brexit for everything that goes wrong is pathetic.

FFS, some people will blame Brexit for the bastard rain!

Ah the 1970s and blackouts, we also got regular blackouts (rural) in the 80s and 90s. It took me years to undo the habit of keeping a raft of candles, camping stove and a vat of water (they used to turn off our water on far too regular basis as well) in an easy to reach kitchen cupboard. Better go clear a cupboard 😇

[quote Anonymice1]You should watch the documentary Britain Blackout on YT. It’s really good. There is a US version as well, not as good.

[/quote] Oh, I remember that. It was one of four doom mongering disaster-dramas, wasn't it? Don't get a generator was the upshot.

If anyone is planning to use a paraffin or camping stove indoors, please buy a CO monitor! They’re potentially so dangerous!

After the great storms in December 1988, DH's power was off for 12 days. He went to the pub and took his gas-powered lamp; the landlord used to beg him to stay all evening. He cooked on a two burner gas stove, that we still have; in fact we used it for three weeks when we refurbed the kitchen two years ago.

@Curlymam88 Camping stoves aren't meant to be used indoors, although I have used them in my open fronted porch.

@dworky

Not heating or cooking (if you have gas), just electric.

Even a gas boiler needs electric to power it.

Whilst it might not happen this winter and might not be related to current issues, it does happen (see the link I shared above from the one in London) and everyone who can be should be prepared a bit. No need to go full on prepper. Then those who are most vulnerable can be prioritised for care, and we can help them too.

Get some decent wool cardigans and jumpers. A long wool cardigan really keeps you cosy. Nothing else is as warm.

I vaguely remember the power cuts of 1970's - I think we just coped with candles, our coal fire and presumably either cold food or tins of food heated up on a little gaz camping stove that my parents used to take on days out so they could boil up water to make cups of tea!

About 10 years ago we had a storm which caused very wide spread power outages in our area. We were fortunate to only be off for 7 hours but some villages were off for 3 days. We lit candles and the fire, and all sat in one room to keep warm. We were lucky to have a gas hob (no gas in the village so most people only have electric) so could cook pasta and sauce for tea and make hot drinks. We read books and played board games and listened to the (battery) radio. All the local shops and takeaways were shut as they had no power! As we camp every year we have sleeping bags, 3 different camping stoves and numerous lanterns so we help our elderly 'all electric' neighbour out too. I think we'd cope if it gets to that point but I think we'd all be mightily fed up with it very quickly.

You know that's just a link to a drama, right? It's not a documentary and no more a battleplan for dealing with a blackout as The Day After Tomorrow is a model for dealing with snow.

Might not be sensible to rely on a presumption these will be planned with notice.

I don't remember the timing being that organised
What I do remember is going to work mid winter (London suburbs) &it was foggy -no street lights & worst of all no blessed traffic lights - we all carried torches & crossing roads was a nightmare
I also remember my parents have an oil heater - if the smell was anything to go by CO level must have been very high
Fortunately the house had a coal fire & my bedroom was immediately above that room so the chimney breast warmed my bedroom

[quote Leftbutcameback]www.nationalgrideso.com/industry-information/balancing-services/system-security-services/black-start[/quote]
eyes possible colleague suspiciously....For the domestic customer, outages, or "blackouts" are hugely unlikely due to supply issues from the national grid, which is highly resilient.

Your domestic gas supply would likely be the first thing to go at times of peak demand in order to divert to power generation. This would be after non essential industry usage had been suspended. The chance of this, again, is vanishingly small.

Even if they were to occur, the time "off" is likely to be measured in seconds or minutes rather than hours.

The enduring cost of energy is more the thing we all need to be concerned about.

Will power banks for mobiles have much effect f the mobile cell stations don't have power or are they always wired on a separate loop/circuit?

[quote Leftbutcameback]@CraftyGin because power is needed to pump water. Black start planning works on a 7 day scenario for all of the electricity to be back online as the grid needs to be powered back on gradually. Treatment works need power to to treat water. We can live without a lot of things for a few days but drinking water isn't one of them. www.thetimes.co.uk/article/water-supply-was-affected-when-august-blackouts-hit-a-million-homes-vvmpplm53[/quote]
But they aren't going to rely on the National Grid. They will have their own generators.

I just texted my DD who works for Ofwat, and she told me to not be stupid.

My dh was born in 1972 at home. My mil gave birth in a blackout. That’s how it was for a good while.
Tips:
Candles, torches, battery operated lamp, board games, layer up and wine

National Grid is only as resilient as the aggregate supply and demand and margin, adjusted for regionality. Resilience gets harder the smaller the margin. It only takes a problem with a significant source of supply. Still there's never been a problem with any of the stations falling over unplanned or any of the trans-national links, fires and suchlike. FWIW and its anecdata, a family member works for the National Grid and he's not agreeing with the 'hugely unlikely' estimate.

Also, people can blame Brexit as much as they like, but shit like this has happened before in the past. Blaming Brexit for everything that goes wrong is pathetic

Quite a lot of coincidences happening since Brexit though

Power cuts in the winter are quite common where I live. The worst we have had is 3 days I think. That was a nuisance as we don't have gas and cooking meals for 5 on a camping stove isn't much fun and keeping an open fire going all the time is quite labour intensive. I guess that's how people lived in the past, but we're just not used to it now. But I wouldn't stress over a few hours without power. Just be a bit prepared. In my experience young children find it quite exciting. Teenagers less so of course!
Make sure you have candles and a few decent torches charged or with good batteries. Hot water bottles are handy. We have uninterruptible power supplies for our computers. They give you time to switch off safely and protect equipment from voltage spikes if the power goes on and off quickly. Speaking of switching things off, don't leave things on when the power goes off! Sods law dictates that if you do, you will be awoken at 3am by all the lights in the house coming on and Guns N Roses blaring from your teenage son's room at high volume ...

@CraftyGin I think what you're missing is the timescale I'm talking about. I'm not referring to short or planned outages but one that is national and lasts for several days. Yes many critical suppliers have generators, but these run on fuel which cannot be stored in huge quantities and needs to be transported. And we are back to fuel supply issues and transporting hazardous materials. This is why we have emergency planning so we look at what the contingencies are, and how make difficult decisions. So for example hospitals have a list of what they switch off in a power cut to save generator fuel. We work in multi agency groups with blue light services, utilities, councils, health etc. All of this is worse case scenario planning so the vast majority of the time it doesn't happen.

Unfortunately @CraftyGin water treatment and pumping stations don't have back up generators. We often have power cuts in the winter as we live rurally and the first thing we do is boil water, fill flasks and water carriers and we keep a lot of old water bottles filled so we can flush the toilet. The water goes off within a few hours.
When we had a big power cut due to snow about 8 years ago they had to bring generators in from somewhere else, we had no water for three days and were without power for 5.

The modern controlled version would hopefully shut down power section by section for a couple of hours at a time. That is how they have done it in the US recently. It’s inconvenient, but for most people, not a huge problem.

@PinkCricket

Eeek really?! Is this in the news??

If you Google 'blackouts expected after Brexit' from about 2018, you'll find loads of articles. Been a long time that people have been earning about it.