PEA power shortages

[fredwiggy]

I have been wondering for quite awhile if any others have been having this kind of problem. Almost every day, without fail, the power will shut off for just a couple of seconds. Then I have to reboot my computer, which isn't fun, waiting for everything to load, and sometimes I will be typing something and the power will go off, and I'll lose what I typed. Also, the power will go off randomly just about once a week, for a few hours. I do know when they are working on something, because I'll be the one who calls them and asks. When I lived in Texas, the power might go off twice or three times a year, and usually during a storm. Here, it's daily, for a second or two, and weekly for hours. I know this isn't normal, but nothing's ever done. I asked my ex how long this has been happening, because I've seen it for the 6 years I've been living here, and she said many years. I live in southern Sisaket province, so I'm wondering if others in other areas, who use PEA, are having this trouble. I will be going to talk with them again, as I tried telling them at the local office and they didn't say much besides I don't know.

[mfd101]

Here right next door to you in south Surin we've had no long blackout so far this monsoon season but we have had 1 or 2 shorter ones (say 1-5 minutes). The longer ones are usually caused by a tree falling across the lines but we haven't - in this El Nino year - had sufficient storms yet to cause that.

 

Also several 2-second jobs that don't cause me any problems (everything comes straight back up) and which don't seem to be related to weather. Someone pushing a test button back at HQ?

[Olav Seglem]

Have same problem in byriram.

Electric go away cuople seconds almost dayly.

Water go away for shorter/longer period almost every second week.

No advance notice.

Asked my wife live with me in norway 15 yrs if we EVER been without water or electric.. :-)

 

[Crossy]

Time to buy a cheap UPS for your PC methinks, I wouldn't consider running a desktop without one.

 

Here in northern BKK (still PEA area) we certainly get short interruptions all the time, probably caused by poor network switching.

 

Longer outages are usually the result of weather (or a truck taking out the power poles - twice in 5 years). My general rule is that if it's not back on in 10 minutes it's going to be hours.

 

We have solar with battery backup and a genset for when the batteries die.

 

[sungod]

12 minutes ago, fredwiggy said:

I have been wondering for quite awhile if any others have been having this kind of problem. Almost every day, without fail, the power will shut off for just a couple of seconds. Then I have to reboot my computer, which isn't fun, waiting for everything to load, and sometimes I will be typing something and the power will go off, and I'll lose what I typed. Also, the power will go off randomly just about once a week, for a few hours. I do know when they are working on something, because I'll be the one who calls them and asks. When I lived in Texas, the power might go off twice or three times a year, and usually during a storm. Here, it's daily, for a second or two, and weekly for hours. I know this isn't normal, but nothing's ever done. I asked my ex how long this has been happening, because I've seen it for the 6 years I've been living here, and she said many years. I live in southern Sisaket province, so I'm wondering if others in other areas, who use PEA, are having this trouble. I will be going to talk with them again, as I tried telling them at the local office and they didn't say much besides I don't know.

Cant help you with PEA, but can advise to buy a UPS to put the PC on.

[UWEB]

12 minutes ago, fredwiggy said:

I have been wondering for quite awhile if any others have been having this kind of problem. Almost every day, without fail, the power will shut off for just a couple of seconds. Then I have to reboot my computer, which isn't fun, waiting for everything to load, and sometimes I will be typing something and the power will go off, and I'll lose what I typed.

Install an UPS for Computer and Router and the Problem is solved

[JBChiangRai]

In my experience, the short ones are often early morning and because they are connecting a new meter to the grid.

 

The 1-2 hour outages are usually storms, and the all day to 4pm is usually them trimming trees near power lines.

[fredwiggy]

Thanks to the replies about getting a UPS. I was thinking about that when I first moved here but let it go until now. That's on my Christmas list for myself now!

[Tropicalevo]

Here on Samui we have lots of short power outages ie < 10 seconds.

UPS keeps everything safe on the desktop computer.

[BritManToo]

1 hour ago, fredwiggy said:

have been wondering for quite awhile if any others have been having this kind of problem.

Same in Chiang Mai, 13+ years,

But I now have solar power and batteries, so my home is no longer affected.

[ravip]

3 hours ago, fredwiggy said:

I have been wondering for quite awhile if any others have been having this kind of problem. Almost every day, without fail, the power will shut off for just a couple of seconds. Then I have to reboot my computer, which isn't fun, waiting for everything to load, and sometimes I will be typing something and the power will go off, and I'll lose what I typed. Also, the power will go off randomly just about once a week, for a few hours. I do know when they are working on something, because I'll be the one who calls them and asks. When I lived in Texas, the power might go off twice or three times a year, and usually during a storm. Here, it's daily, for a second or two, and weekly for hours. I know this isn't normal, but nothing's ever done. I asked my ex how long this has been happening, because I've seen it for the 6 years I've been living here, and she said many years. I live in southern Sisaket province, so I'm wondering if others in other areas, who use PEA, are having this trouble. I will be going to talk with them again, as I tried telling them at the local office and they didn't say much besides I don't know.

As mentioned earlier by another poster, an UPS is mandatory for a Desktop PC. This will protect your PC quite a lot and even help extend the life of the PC.

[kimamey]

I'm in Mahasarakham and we have outages but usually at night for a few hours, usually during rain. It's possible we have shorter ones without me knowing, although now I think of it there was one a few weeks back. The fan stopped working and the router stopped but it came back on within a minute I think.

I use a laptop so a few seconds stoppage would be covered by the battery and I probably wouldn't notice. 

[DJ54]

Funny thing…. when the power goes off digital temperature on AC comes on when power comes back. 
This morning the digital read out was on so must of had a  temp power rest..  

 

The short off and ons seems to be 2-3 times a week recently….. power outages happen far less than 

they did a couple years back which seemed like daily during rainy season… I’ve got PEA on speed dial 

if powers off 15 minutes or more I call… living in the village seems like few if any call when outage…

[LukKrueng]

Here's 1 month of reporting to pea. Obviously it doesn't include the short few seconds off\on.

About a couple of months ago we had few evenings that it went off\on 5-10 times in a very short period...

One day, hopefully in the near future, I'll install a full house ups system.

[Rampant Rabbit]

Thanks your  lucky stars...pea by me have just destroyed 4 of my fcu auto reclosers by "fixing" the street lighting yesterday, Im sick of the <deleted> s, they couldnt wire up an electric chair to  kill themselves. Ive spent 2  years  telling them there is 20v down neutral to earth everytime their street lighting switches on near our  land at 6pm, oh no, they told me its my earthing was no good, theyre  idiots at best.

yesterday they came and "fixed"  the street lighting..........now all of a sudden 4 different fcu's in 4  different houses on my land are all dead, pretty sure they have damaged the auto reclosers, photo attached of auto recloser.

Best part Im away out of country for 6 weeks, only  just left....now got  no cctv cameras, no well water pumps, no electric at all...shows power to main incoming board next to the meter on the boundary wall but all other houses 100%dead, none, of the breakers  tripped and trying to diagnose this from 6000 miles  away isnt easy. I installed the auto reclosers  after the electric kept going off repeatedly as in 2-3  times a week and being away from the house a lot didnt want a fridge full of decomposed  food, they worked great............now it  looks  like i have to replace all 4 at 2k baht each I also added  lightning surge protectors and over under voltage protection.....if I could only get a "useless pea wucking fanka" protector  installed

[bbko]

After reading what some of you folks go through, I'm happy with my PEA service here on Pattaya's Darkside, unless there's a big thunderstorm, our power goes off maybe once a month.

[fredwiggy]

1 hour ago, DJ54 said:

Funny thing…. when the power goes off digital temperature on AC comes on when power comes back. 
This morning the digital read out was on so must of had a  temp power rest..  

 

The short off and ons seems to be 2-3 times a week recently….. power outages happen far less than 

they did a couple years back which seemed like daily during rainy season… I’ve got PEA on speed dial 

if powers off 15 minutes or more I call… living in the village seems like few if any call when outage…

Just happened while I was reading this posting! It's Mai pen rai as far as locals doing anything about it. Like I mentioned, my ex said this had been happening for years before I even moved here. One more reason I'm moving back asap. This has nothing to do with anything besides incompetency. Power should not go out unless there is a storm, and something was hit, besides trees hitting the lines, which they finally cleared last year around here. This is equipment failure, or improper maintenance. Seeing it happens all over, that is more reason to believe it's who they are hiring, and training, or the lack of it. There is now a heavy storm at my house, and the power is staying on.

[BritManToo]

What about the water problems!

Water pressure so low that half the time the upstairs shower heater won't heat.

Last night at 1am, went to the loo, water off completely.

Water is off 3x a month for 2-3hrs.

 

Guess we're lucky, water and power in Cambodia and The Philippines is even worse.

I expect the western world will shortly be just as bad, when no sun or no wind.

[JBChiangRai]

29 minutes ago, Rampant Rabbit said:

Thanks your  lucky stars...pea by me have just destroyed 4 of my fcu auto reclosers by "fixing" the street lighting yesterday, Im sick of the <deleted> s, they couldnt wire up an electric chair to  kill themselves. Ive spent 2  years  telling them there is 20v down neutral to earth everytime their street lighting switches on near our  land at 6pm, oh no, they told me its my earthing was no good, theyre  idiots at best.

yesterday they came and "fixed"  the street lighting..........now all of a sudden 4 different fcu's in 4  different houses on my land are all dead, pretty sure they have damaged the auto reclosers, photo attached of auto recloser.

Best part Im away out of country for 6 weeks, only  just left....now got  no cctv cameras, no well water pumps, no electric at all...shows power to main incoming board next to the meter on the boundary wall but all other houses 100%dead, none, of the breakers  tripped and trying to diagnose this from 6000 miles  away isnt easy. I installed the auto reclosers  after the electric kept going off repeatedly as in 2-3  times a week and being away from the house a lot didnt want a fridge full of decomposed  food, they worked great............now it  looks  like i have to replace all 4 at 2k baht each I also added  lightning surge protectors and over under voltage protection.....if I could only get a "useless pea wucking fanka" protector  installed

I think you need to bond neutral to earth at your earthing location, that should solve the neutral to earth 20 V problem

[Rampant Rabbit]

6 minutes ago, JBChiangRai said:

I think you need to bond neutral to earth at your earthing location, that should solve the neutral to earth 20 V problem

Nope, I already did that right from the start as we had MEN system installed in the road, I had to disconnect it and go with separate earth rods and not bonding Nto E before this  the the door  handles of the house (metal)  gave  me a 20v  tingle (only when street lights  turned on), this  all stems from something theyve done with the streetlighting over 2  years  ago, and which Ive told them about for over 2  years, tested  on my meter between  L N E all good but when connected as it should be with neutral joining th earth bar............big problem.

In the day its fine correct polarity etc as  soon as the streetlights  turn on get 20v down neutral to earth, I can recreate it exactly by going out in the street and covering the streetlight light sensor which turns the streetlights on at dusk

[NE1]

We can go through storms and such without a flicker.

Yet any other day it will flick on and off , like the op , have to restart computer etc.

Tried on of those UP things a few years ago , I found it to be too large and noisy .

[JBChiangRai]

25 minutes ago, Rampant Rabbit said:

Nope, I already did that right from the start as we had MEN system installed in the road, I had to disconnect it and go with separate earth rods and not bonding Nto E before this  the the door  handles of the house (metal)  gave  me a 20v  tingle (only when street lights  turned on), this  all stems from something theyve done with the streetlighting over 2  years  ago, and which Ive told them about for over 2  years, tested  on my meter between  L N E all good but when connected as it should be with neutral joining th earth bar............big problem.

In the day its fine correct polarity etc as  soon as the streetlights  turn on get 20v down neutral to earth, I can recreate it exactly by going out in the street and covering the streetlight light sensor which turns the streetlights on at dusk

If you have Neutral bonded to Earth at your home and you have a good earth, it's impossible for anything in the street to give you a N-E voltage house-side after your bonding.

[Rampant Rabbit]

1 minute ago, JBChiangRai said:

If you have Neutral bonded to Earth at your home and you have a good earth, it's impossible for anything in the street to give you a N-E voltage house-side after your bonding.

Feel free  to come down and see as thats EXACTLY whats been happening for 2  years until i separated N and E and I also consulted with Crossy over this for a considerable period of time, I went through it with him performed all the tests The only fix was Neutral NOT bonded to Earth, when bonded at night my house door handles have 20v going thru them. Even now when the streetlights  switch on I have 20v down my separate E N but no longer through my door  handles. Crossy determined through testing their streetlights are at fault and we estyablished my side of the connection is fine. Told Pea...................vacant look

[Rampant Rabbit]

8 minutes ago, JBChiangRai said:

If you have Neutral bonded to Earth at your home and you have a good earth, it's impossible for anything in the street to give you a N-E voltage house-side after your bonding.

heres  what crossy  told  me about this  years  ago : I did test during the  day and the results were fine  it didnt head away  by more than 1 volt...........at night its a different  matter.

 

 

(Crossy said)

I strongly suspect that "something" involved with the street lighting is pulling up the N possibly due to a bad joint somewhere.

 

If it's not actually causing you issues I wouldn't worry about it, but it might be an idea to do a test during the day. Put a decent load on in the house (kettle, water heater) and see what the neutral does if it heads away from ground by more than a volt or two then I reckon there's a bad joint in the N somewhere on the way to the transformer which the lighting load is pulling up too.

 

This will of course be fun getting PEA to look at because it only happens when the lights come on.

[JBChiangRai]

Where you bond to earth and the quality of your earth is important.  You have to bond to earth at the earthing rod, not in the house, and you need a good earth.  Typically Thai earths can be fairly poor. Especially if a bad site with dry soil or electrician didn't install it fully.

 

I agree with Crossy that something in the street is pulling up your Neutral, but bonding to a good earth at the point of Earth should restore it to Zero.

 

I suspect you have a bad earth

[LikeItHot]

Happens all the time in Samui usually for hours.  I downloaded the PEA app and file outages and dips there every time.  I have filed dozens and dozens in a short time.  They actually respond quickly and often call to ask me specifics about what's going on and how many people are affected.  If I hear a transformer explode or something they might find useful I include it in my description.  I don't think they can stop outages but the sooner they get notified the better.  It's also convenient for paying my bill every month and tracking my usage etc. 

[Bat21]

I use a laptop, so the battery keeps the computer going when the power blinks or goes out for a short time. I'm actually impressed how PEA has been able to keep up with the power needed to supply our village. In 20 years, the houses have gone from 1-2 fluorescent lights and one receptacle to using massive amounts of electricity for Wifi routers, charging mobile phones and e-bikes, washing machines, water heaters, microwaves, refrigerators, Aircon units and the like. Not to mention the added strain on the grid from the scores of new homes being built on the farms. 

[DiDiChok]

Oh dear, I do feel for those suffering, but I think the problem may have been misdiagnosed (see rhyme at end).  I suspect that as most of you do not have anything to do with three phase systems, you are unaware of the problems that come with these supplies.  You are quite happy that individual houses and street lights are on different phases and never have a problem.  Everything is quite all right as long as everyone either takes current from a phase and it is returned down the neutral or uses phase to phase power.

 

But computers and other electrical "switched mode" devices put a whistle on the wires.  Low voltage power supplies are often of this type as it means a transformer is not required when supplying low voltages.  I take it that you do like the new low wattage street lights?  Anyway, this "whistle" gradually undoes any screws holding wires to connections.  In an office environment with multiple computers in it, someone is usually deputed once a year to go round and tighten up all the little screws.  To alleviate the problem nowadays since there are multiple low voltage lamps everywhere, clips are used to hold wires in connectors instead of screws.

 

Now, what happens when someone is taking power from live to neutral on one phase, but then the neutral's connection to its transformer is lost?  There are three phases but only one neutral, so when the connection to the transformer's neutral is lost you get phase to phase current flow at 415 volts between your phase and what you thought was your neutral and not the 230 volts you were expecting.  The current may be quite large as well.  So everything goes "boom" and everyone wonders why.  This causes great consternation when this fault is intermittent as it may well be because something heats up and causes the fault, only to cool down and restore normality.  People are already saying that there are voltages between earth and neutral that are sometimes quite large, so the problem seems obvious to me.

 

Street lights (like houses) are often very sensibly wired to the phases in order going along a road, to even the load out on each of the phases.  Someone should get all the neutral connections checked right away or at least tell someone in authority about the problem before someone gets killed.  This is why you should use double pole switches on mains supplies and not just a single pole isolating what you thought was the live wire.  I think the rhyme goes like this: 

"Little boy, big pliers, playing with electric wires.  Big flash, loud crash, little boy reduced to ash".