I was wondering about this for a long time.

I observed that whenever it rain, wind, or thunderstorm no matter how little, there's always a blackout.

why is this so?. I had been to a tropical country where it rains and thunderstorms hard almost every single day, but in my three (3) years there, never have i seen light go out, not even in monsoon/tsunami season.

So is it that our electrical equipment can't stand up to the small rains we have here? Is there a technical reason for this? like they're trying to avoid bigger problems by switching the light off when it rains.

If so, how come no other country has blackouts except in really serious natural disasters. Can we really afford to be playing with something as important as electricity in this day and age?

I think this is a very good question. I've always wondered same too. It seems the rain affects something, that's why they usually seize electricity whenever it's about to rain. I'm not sure though.

They always take it because of two things 1 the way we use to connect light into our street is not standard, most of the live wires are loose and lack seprators so when wind is blowing they touch and it damage the transformers.

2 most of our poles are wooden and weak so when it rain thare is tendency of some falling down which will increase risk of electrocuting the public.

So phcn meant well when ever it's raining and they swicth of power grid.

Interesting. I wasn't aware of this.

When it rains, it's cool and you don't need your electric fan.
When it rains, there's free cold water and you don't need your fridge.
When it rains, there's lightning and you don't need your electric bulbs and fluorescent tubes.
When it rains, there's thunder and you don't need any other music.
When it rains, there's a lot to watch from nature and you don't need the artificial stuff on your TV.
If you are told not to power on those gadgets, you wouldn't comply. The best way to stop you from "WASTING ENERGY" is making it unavailable..

UP NEPA!!

Jamb Question or better still, i will inform GEJ

ekt_bear: Interesting. I wasn't aware of this.

na for moon u dey live? Nepa pole no dey infront of ur house, how can u say that u are not aware

OP your post just made me remember this ...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLbK_NWQ9fA

If the cable don wet, e go dey shock.....buhahahah

crazy

I think this happen mostly in rural area than urban area. And I think it is because they do not trust most of their protective device, so in other not to cause a big problem they seize the light while it rains.

The main reason they do is due to Power system protection techniques to prevent a major outage (one you will hate more). They shut out the power to protect the system from lightning strikes and since surge can be millions of volts when there is a lightning strike, and the government has refused to invest on lightning arrestors,there is no other alternative but to shutdown.

1supremo: When it rains, it's cool and you don't need your electric fan.
When it rain, there's free cold water and you don't need your fridge.
When it rains, there's lightning, hence, you don't need your electric bulbs and fluorescent tubes.
When it rains, there's thunder and you don't need any other music.
When it rains, there's a lot to watch from nature and you don't need the artificial stuff from on your TV.
If you are told not to power on those gadgets, you wouldn't comply. The best way to stop you from "WASTING ENERGY" is making it unavailable..
UP NEPA!!

afam4eva: I think this is a very good question. I've always wondered same too. It seems the rain affects something, that's why they usually seize electricity whenever it's about to rain. I'm not sure though.

Yes, in Electrical Engineering there is what we call Power surge induction, lightening can induce up to 33,000 kVA into power lines, Normally PHCN supposed to install very good earthing systems to take care of that but this is naija, most earthings has not been revamp since time immemorial, So sensors are installed to trip off power when the weather changes. (dark cloud = RAIN)

cycober: I was wondering about this for a long time.

I observed that whenever it rain, wind, or thunderstorm no matter how little, there's always a blackout.

why is this so?. I had been to a tropical country where it rains and thunderstorms hard almost every single day, but in my three (3) years there, never have i seen light go out, not even in monsoon/tsunami season.

So is it that our electrical equipment can't stand up to the small rains we have here? Is there a technical reason for this? like they're trying to avoid bigger problems by switching the light off when it rains.

If so, how come no other country has blackouts except in really serious natural disasters. Can we really afford to be playing with something as important as electricity in this day and age?

den go back to were u come from

PHCN do not shut power off during the rains rather the in-built circuit breaker on the grid system turns off. This is as a result of the live wires touching each other or rain droplets (water is a good conductor) which when drops on exposed transformers. I deduce this from the fact that, sometimes during the rains, you still have power even during storms and at other times you see it flickers with the wind. This is not discounting the fact that they purposely turn off the grid to prevent the dangers of electrocution from fallen poles and wires. Saying this, we've had cases of people being electrocuted after the rains from fallen cables .....I see no sense in 'preventive' switching off the grids if there are no system in place to detect such breaches in safety.

Cos its nigeria

One of the possible reasons is that mumus are damn too lazy to close the transformers, distribution boxes or breaker boxes after the work is done... I can hardly remember seeing a transformer on the street that was properly closed after some maintenance was done. Hi voltage, low voltage, it does not matter to them... they fix what they have to fix and just leave.

PHCH's problems is bigger that PHCN itself. So, dont blame them

Vincent 4:


den go back to were u come from

So this is all your brain could come up with huh? Or you just want to be a waste of bandwith? I don't know which one is the case but both are pretty dumb.

Cos they can't stand ЂΞ can't stand ЂΞ after effect

You have a point,your statement is the ideal thing but the protectors in Nigeria are mostly not working. At least as at when i did my final year project in Power Outage Analysis. If the automated systems are not working, they result to manual preventive means.

bigtt76: PHCN do not shut power off during the rains rather the in-built circuit breaker on the grid system turns off. This is as a result of the live wires touching each other or rain droplets (water is a good conductor) which when drops on exposed transformers. I deduce this from the fact that, sometimes during the rains, you still have power even during storms and at other times you see it flickers with the wind. This is not discounting the fact that they purposely turn off the grid to prevent the dangers of electrocution from fallen poles and wires. Saying this, we've had cases of people being electrocuted after the rains from fallen cables .....I see no sense in 'preventive' switching off the grids if there are no system in place to detect such breaches in safety.

This is a good question and I would like the experts to give us clear answer. It happens both in Ghana, Nigeria, Gambia and every other West African country, I have no clue why it is so. And in all these countries i mentioned, even DSTV/cable signal will be affected when it rains or when there is thunderstorm.

Our technicians and engineers, over to you guys...

DSTV transmitts on a very susceptible frequency band the Ku-Band. look it up on wikipedia, let me not derail the thread.

Ricky_Ross: This is a good question and I would like the experts to give us clear answer. It happens both in Ghana, Nigeria, Gambia and every other West African country, I have no clue why it is so. And in all these countries i mentioned, even DSTV/cable signal will be affected when it rains or when there is thunderstorm.

Our technicians and engineers, over to you guys...

Ricky_Ross: This is a good question and I would like the experts to give us clear answer. It happens both in Ghana, Nigeria, Gambia and every other West African country, I have no clue why it is so. And in all these countries i mentioned, even DSTV/cable signal will be affected when it rains or when there is thunderstorm.

Our technicians and engineers, over to you guys...

In the case of dstv/cable signal, they operate on KU band, that is why the signal is affected by rain droplet unlike Startimes and other local stations that opreates on C band.
Actually, that's one of the adv of C over KU band

The truth!! They are saving your life

Truth is, in the long term, most of the country has to be rewired and most transformers changed. That is why the privatisation must succeed. The past leaders did not plan these things. Only Abuja had some planning.

Speaking from Technical point of view,power outage in Nigeria during rainfall is due poor installation of our electrical infrastructures,most especially our distribution cables, there is tendency of bridging of two cables whenever their is rainfall or thunderstorm these will be feedback to the Transformer and it is a very high surge that can damage the Transformer.

Some say if u pour a bucket of water on d roof,light go go..lol

seunfly: They always take it because of two things 1 the way we use to connect light into our street is not standard, most of the live wires are loose and lack seprators so when wind is blowing they touch and it damage the transformers.

2 most of our poles are wooden and weak so when it rain thare is tendency of some falling down which will increase risk of electrocuting the public.

So phcn meant well when ever it's raining and they swicth of power grid.

nice answer.....u work 4 nepa before

Plz remind me again when PHCN wud be Privatisd; shee na this week or next? This is what i want to know.

lokzie: The main reason they do is due to Power system protection techniques to prevent a major outage (one you will hate more). They shut out the power to protect the system from lightning strikes and since surge can be millions of volts when there is a lightning strike, and the government has refused to invest on lightning arrestors,there is no other alternative but to shutdown.

As a power system engineer(beng),I have read all the answers posted here and I find this one very correct(and chessboard try small)....are u guys electrical engineers.


When lightening strikes,they do harm to our transmission lines by adding additional overvoltages of mega volts or even more,to protect our transmission lines we need to install surge arrester on our transmission lines to avoid lightening damaging our transmission lines.that being said,our protective system is bad n unreliable,so its better to just shut down supply attimes after feasibility studies of how dangerous it is.
Then again,how many houses have a good earthing system?