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Power outage, February 2018


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Absolutely disgusting! Instead of once a day protracted outage, we now seem to be averaging two such occurrences on a daily basis. And no, not counting the short duration outages of less than a minute or two. We typically lose electricity for several hours at a time.

Trying to be positive here, at least this outage is a total outage rather than the really hard ones from an appliance perspective of losing only one phase, or wildly fluctuating voltages.

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Nearly 140 years after Edison started the first distribution company it amazes me that Panama (Fenosa) is still having difficulty delivering consistent, reliable power, with nothing more than wind (or rain) as a natural bogey man. Hard to remember a week without any interruptions.

No one has ever explained to me why our power goes off regularly for a minute or two and then comes back on.  Why is it happening so often in the first place? Switching within the grid? Really?

No one is expecting a "1st World" electrical system - - - but what exactly do we have? 2nd? 3rd? Something in between?

HOLLY COW. Just went off again!

Now back on after a 10 minute delay.

So lets hear from the electrical engineers as to why this is happening.

 

Edited by John R Hampton
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What I can't comprehend is why the electrical main feed to Boquete wasn't ran under ground during the widening of the highway a few years back! Piss poor planning as usual here. Some idiot that can't drive runs off the highway and takes out a trunk line concrete power pole below los Molinos a while back and the whole area was without power for the day? WTF? 

Edited by Ahren Grauer
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8 hours ago, John R Hampton said:

Nearly 140 years after Edison started the first distribution company it amazes me that Panama (Fenosa) is still having difficulty delivering consistent, reliable power, with nothing more than wind (or rain) as a natural bogey man. Hard to remember a week without any interruptions.

No one has ever explained to me why our power goes off regularly for a minute or two and then comes back on.  Why is it happening so often in the first place? Switching within the grid? Really?

No one is expecting a "1st World" electrical system - - - but what exactly do we have? 2nd? 3rd? Something in between?

HOLLY COW. Just went off again!

Now back on after a 10 minute delay.

So lets hear from the electrical engineers as to why this is happening.

 

 

John,

 

Retired EE here however my area of study was digital.  Burning up chips and circuits boards in lab was cool, studying safety particularly electrocution in high capacity electrical environments wasn't.  Designing and manufacturing a bad chip could earn you a bad grade, a miscalculation in a hicap lab could result in death.

 

 

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2 hours ago, Ahren Grauer said:

What I can't comprehend is why the electrical main feed to Boquete wasn't ran under ground during the widening of the highway a few years back! Piss poor planning as usual here. Some idiot that can't drive runs off the highway and takes out a trunk line concrete power pole below los Molinos a while back and the whole area was without power for the day? WTF? 

 

Ahren,

 

It comes down to cost and time to repair.  Underground utilities experience far less disruptions however are far more difficult to detect and resolve problems versus above ground lines. 

 

 

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This is the history link to Fenosa:

http://www.gasnaturalfenosa.com.pa/pa/inicio/conocenos/quienes+somos/historia/1297110395133/la+buena+energia.html

This statement from their website is interesting: We have reduced the time of interruptions for our own cause from 1998 to date by more than 87%, achieving the best quality of service results in the Central American region.

Wonder where that is? 9_9

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13 hours ago, Bud said:

Absolutely disgusting! Instead of once a day protracted outage, we now seem to be averaging two such occurrences on a daily basis. And no, not counting the short duration outages of less than a minute or two. We typically lose electricity for several hours at a time.

Trying to be positive here, at least this outage is a total outage rather than the really hard ones from an appliance perspective of losing only one phase, or wildly fluctuating voltages.

Those at the end of the line certainly seem be the most affected.

We had a couple of 10 or 15 minute outages in Alto last night but the UPS provided power to the internet modems and TV, so Hockey Night in Canada continued uninterrupted.

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5 hours ago, TwoSailors said:

This is the history link to Fenosa:

http://www.gasnaturalfenosa.com.pa/pa/inicio/conocenos/quienes+somos/historia/1297110395133/la+buena+energia.html

This statement from their website is interesting: We have reduced the time of interruptions for our own cause from 1998 to date by more than 87%, achieving the best quality of service results in the Central American region.

Wonder where that is? 9_9

Precisely. My electrical service has become worse since I moved here 11 years ago.

Whatever happened to onward and upward?

Edited by Bonnie
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21 hours ago, Keith Woolford said:

We had a couple of 10 or 15 minute outages in Alto last night but the UPS provided power to the internet modems and TV, so Hockey Night in Canada continued uninterrupted.

We also have a UPS that is good for 2 hours battery backup. We have internet modems, TV, Routers, Roku box, and security cameras and they have all stayed on for the stated 2 hours. One time when the power was out for 5 hours the UPS lasted 4 hours! Bought it at Price Smart 2 years ago. Worth every penny.

The thing about the power going off and on for just a few minutes is concerning. We do have surge protectors for everything.

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Elon Musk's TESLA Powerwall units have become an affordable solution for supplying backup power in homes, and they will get less expensive as battery technology continues to develop.

Seamless backup power. With or without solar.

Powerwall detects grid outages and automatically becomes your home's main energy source. Protect your home from the next power outage and keep your lights on, phones charged, and no puddles under the fridge.

image.thumb.png.a71f0e763b82fa792f11db23f25049ab.png

https://www.tesla.com/powerwall

Edited by Keith Woolford
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On 2/18/2018 at 5:10 AM, Siempre Soluciones said:

 

Ahren,

 

It comes down to cost and time to repair.  Underground utilities experience far less disruptions however are far more difficult to detect and resolve problems versus above ground lines. 

I see what you're saying. Underground here wouldn't be installed correctly and cause even more problems and longer outages. I get it.

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Personal preparedness, in my view.

Panama is not the first world.  It's a 'look after yourself a bit' place.

If a person thinks it's going to rain, they should take an umbrella.

If the water service is iffy, they might want to get a tank, or two.

If electrical service is dodgy, they can obtain a generator or battery backups.

Same applies to home security.

and so on

It's about making inconveniences more tolerable.

Edited by Keith Woolford
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