550 customers without electricity

Defect in substation lead to load shedding.

Kappel-Grafenhausen / MAHLBERG-Orschweier (BZ). Yesterday morning, it
is 4.41 clock to come in the districts Grafenhausen
(Kappel-Grafenhausen) and Orschweier (Mahlberg) to a power
interruption. Grafenhausen a technical failure occurred in a 20 000
volt substation at 18 Commercial Street. At the same time dissolved in
the industrial area Orschweier security institutions due to a faulty
underground cable, said the utility EnBW.

After 40 minutes at first to re-power

The emergency services are immediately moved out of EnBW to locate
the fault and restore power by switching the power supply gradually
restored. These were partly supplied again after 40 minutes the first
customers. For about 30 network customers in the immediate vicinity of
the affected substation in the industrial area Grafenhausen had more
work to be done in the low voltage network, until they were able to
move back to 7.45 clock electricity. A total of approximately 550
power customers were affected.

The energy supplier has repaired the defective components and
technical systems and replaced. In the substation in Grafenhausen a 20
000 volt substation will be exchanged and installed a new termination.
Yesterday morning was a cable test van in use, the Council identified
the damaged spot on the cable in Orschweier exactly. Then began the
repair work. After serving in the test car has Orschweier safety
reasons the cables in the substation commercial street in Grafenhausen
checked.

Power cuts spoil the Arabs summer

 An Iraqi electricians working on power cables and a tangle of wires in Baghdad. In many Arab countries, it always comes back to power outages. Photo: dpa
Baghdad / Beirut / Cairo. Samar Hassan fed up with the power cuts that plague their neighborhoods in the Lebanese capital Beirut regularly. Samira Ahmed The Egyptian, each time a sinking feeling in my stomach when her husband moved into their slum on the outskirts of Cairo in perilous heights cable to drain to electricity for the common budget. In Iraq, in turn, led angry protests from the public against the constant blackouts in bloody clashes with security forces. In June, while one protester died and dozens more were wounded - the electricity minister, had to resign.

During the summer in the Middle East from week to week will be hot and the temperatures in some places even to 50 degrees in the shade, climb the minds of the population because of the excruciating heat increasing electricity shortage. Somewhat peaceful relations and the global triumph of consumerism raise expectations with which the crumbling infrastructure in many Arab countries can not keep up.

The Affliction separates the social classes from each other. More and more members of the middle classes can afford air conditioners, refrigerators and other appliances that eat a lot of power - especially if they all crave the same time after a refrigerated room and a cold soda. For the poor, however, the current is often not even to their huts in the evening light have.

"This is a crisis that has no end," laments Samar Hassan. "We Lebanese have had enough." Like the other inhabitants of their slightly more upmarket residential area, it attaches importance to electricity around the clock. For this they must pay two bills: one that sends her to the state electricity company, and the other for the private generator operator, whose services she takes during the public power cuts in entitlement.

Mismanagement and war consequences

In Lebanon, economic mismanagement in the government sector and military implications for the current plight is responsible. Recently, the government went with television commercials in the offensive flow it would be "soon night and day," it said. The citizens of the country through its painful history of callous to such promises to be believed. "24-hours of electricity in Lebanon? I will not live to see it, "said laconically of the bank employees Radwah Malek, a middle-aged man.

In Iraq, the war that Saddam's dictatorship, the economic sanctions the UN and the mess the American occupation after 2003 Infrastructures are damaged devastating. is electricity from the socket it in this devastated country, four in the best case, six hours a day. The hopes now rest on the new Electricity Minister Hussein al-Shahristani, the appending of the reputation of an efficient maker.

"We are working on alternative projects to supply power," was the energy specialist Nasser Hussein announced that works under the new minister. The talk is of greater involvement of the private sector as well as the integration of previously purely private generator operator in the public service. But even in a country like Egypt, which was spared in the last decades of wars, is the current in the summer or the want of such an omnipresent conversation topic as the weather in Britain. A rapidly growing population and a dynamic small business are the incompetent administration of the country well before insoluble problems. The decreed because of the congestion of the network power cuts in turn are a hindrance for the further growth of small businesses and tourism.

Most severely from the current crisis, but suffer in the Nile Valley, the poorest of the poor, the many millions of inhabitants of urban slums. "The government does not forward the stream to where we live," stated the housewife Samira Ahmed. "Our men therefore draw the stream from there, where they can, but that one line is never stable." But for her and her family is the stolen electricity, the only choice

Electricity and excavations

2. Existing utilities that cross the pipeline trench prevent shields
from being pulled forward. Pulling and resetting shields
around crossing utilities is time-consuming plus the area
around the crossing utility has to be shored in some other
way. In pit construction any existing line that crosses through
the hole is enough to prevent use of a shield.
Because most water, gas, and electric installations are
within the top 8 ft of the surface, it is possible to remove the
top shield and pull lower shields under the utilities. Shoring
or sloping still needs to be provided above the boxes.
S h o r i n g S y s t e m s S e l e c t e d f r o m Ta b u l a t e d D a t a 389
9.6.2 Shoring Shield Size and Nomenclature
The basic elements and nomenclature of a shoring shield are shown in
Fig. 9.30. Shoring shields and boxes are described by height × length ×
wall thickness. The wall thickness is nominal. Most shields are constructed
with 3/16-in plate “skin” over tube steel ribs so the actual
wall thickness is nominal size +3/8 in. Standard heights are 2, 4, 6, and
10 ft. Standard lengths are in 2-ft increments from 10 to 32 ft. Wall
thickness is critical to wall strength and deflection. In terms of strength
efficiency, the ratio of the weight to the psf rating, of the box there is a
practical length to each wall thickness. In other words at certain
lengths a box that weighs less can be built with a higher strength rating
and less deflection by increasing the wall thickness. Thicknesses
and practical lengths are 3 in and 12 ft, 4 in and 16 ft, 6 in and 24 ft, 8 in
and 27 ft, and 10 in and 30 ft. Every additional 2 in of wall thickness
translates into an additional 4 in of excavation and backfill quantity,
and so thinner walls are desirable. Required length, next strength, and
then wall thickness usually control the selection of the box. If boxes
are going to be dug in or used to protect existing facilities, thicker
walls should be used to control deflection. Custom boxes can be
ordered from manufacturers in any size and strength. The sky is the
limit, but the practical limit is hit when the weight of the box exceeds
the handling strength of the excavator being used to move the box.


From the excavations handbook

Emergency and Backup Power Sources

Not only for South Africans: Emergency and Backup Power Sources - Preparing for Blackouts and Brownouts provides invaluable information on emergency and backup power sources, as we deal with an aging power distribution system that often fails to provide reliable electrical power. The massive power outage in the summer of 2003 that affected eight states and parts of Canada exemplifies the importance of this topic.


You will find much useful information on the types of systems that can take over during power interruptions, such as standby power systems that employ batteries, kinetic energy storage, fuel cells, reciprocating engines, and turbines. Topics include power disturbances and interruptions, spikes and noise, sags and surges, surge suppression, voltages regulation, load management, power quality issues, reliability and maintainability, comparison of operating costs, environmental issues, blackout planning, emergency procedures, and more. All to ensure that you can work even when the electricla power supply doesn't work anymore.  

Loadshedding book review

We are looking for a review of Load-Shedding: Writing on and over the edge of South Africa by Liz McGregor, Sarah Nuttall ...

Has anyone read this book? Please write a review for us.

power cuts in South Africa

...Neighbours like Botswana and Namibia, which rely heavily on South African energy exports, have also been badly hit by the disruptions in the region's economic and political powerhouse. The outages have undermined confidence in South Africa, with incidents such as the stranding of hundreds of people on tourism icon Table Mountain because of a power cut gaining international media attention.
"The unprecedented unplanned power outages must now be treated as a national electricity emergency situation that has to be addressed with urgent, vigorous and co-ordinated actions," Public Enterprise Minister Alec Erwin told journalists after a cabinet meeting today. "We are viewing the next two years as being critical," he said, as government officials unveiled measures, including rationing, price hikes and a massive switch to solar power....

Source

power cuts in South Africa

...Neighbours like Botswana and Namibia, which rely heavily on South African energy exports, have also been badly hit by the disruptions in the region's economic and political powerhouse. The outages have undermined confidence in South Africa, with incidents such as the stranding of hundreds of people on tourism icon Table Mountain because of a power cut gaining international media attention.
"The unprecedented unplanned power outages must now be treated as a national electricity emergency situation that has to be addressed with urgent, vigorous and co-ordinated actions," Public Enterprise Minister Alec Erwin told journalists after a cabinet meeting today. "We are viewing the next two years as being critical," he said, as government officials unveiled measures, including rationing, price hikes and a massive switch to solar power....

Source