It’s just gone 10 AM, and Storm Eunice is raging outside. Our lights went out and our uninterruptible power supplies started beeping a couple of minutes ago. The lights came back on and the beeping stopped a few seconds later. There are 13,884 properties suffering a power cut in Cornwall, but at least ours was brief!
However some other local residents are not so fortunate:
Western Power Distribution currently estimate that the fault will be fixed by 1 PM, but what with one thing and another that strikes me as being a bit optimistic.
[Edit – 11:00 February 19th]WPD have been gradually fixing the faults on their network in the Davidstow area following Storm Eunice yesterday. However there are still 690 properties that have been without electricity for over 24 hours:
There are also still several more faults nearby:
It seems our flickering lights this morning meant that we’ve just dodged another metaphorical electric bullet here on the fringes of Davidstow. Whilst yesterday’s fault is now almost fixed:
another big high voltage fault hit this side of the Atlantic Highway this morning:
We may have managed to dodge the first two bullets, but unfortunately not the third. I went on a bike ride around the neighbourhood this afternoon try to find some WPD engineers. More on all that in due course, but I failed miserably in my mission until the very end of my ride. This was the sight that greeted me at the end of our lane:
This was the reason for their visit:
We’ve received some unexpected good news this morning. Thanks to the efforts of Western Power’s engineers by floodlight overnight electricity is already flowing around our ring mains once again!
As I surmised the high voltage fault at Davidstow substation hasn’t been repaired yet:
There are also now several more power cuts in the vicinity, including a low voltage fault affecting 55 properties in Camelford:
It looks as though a lot of people around here are going to be without electricity for an awful lot longer. Here’s the latest update from WPD on the Davidstow substation fault:
WPD are gradually fixing faults. As February 18th draws to a close there are still 1077 properties without electricity in the Davidstow vicinity.
In the absence of any lunch and any electricity I headed off to Mexi-Kernow in Camelford this evening to get some spicy hot food.
On my return the weather was foul but there were a couple of WPD engineers at the end of our lane. They told me they would be working in the wind and rain until midnight. After an all too brief sleep they would be back again at first light in the morning.
It seems that the next door farmer went to check his sheep this morning, and wondered why his dog seemed to be having a fit. Then he touched the metal gate, and received a shock he described as “like accidentally touching an electric fence”.
The food was very tasty, but when I checked the WPD web site once again I received this unappetising news:
It’s now nearly 8 PM on Sunday February 20th. Storm Eunice has departed across the North Sea, but numerous faults remain. In addition Storm Franklin has arrived to add to the number of power cuts. Here’s the current state of things here in North Cornwall:
Our own power is now back on, but 3 more faults on feeders from WPD’s Davidstow substation remain.