Note my location, I haven't had one for at least 10 years in this country !
From 5am onwards, the town of Emmendingen and several villages around there where without power. The power was restored in the town center after 2 or 3 hours. I live in a village 3km from town, there it took until 2pm until power was back. Amazing. A real blackout, finally.
Now here's the effects:
My wife started the day without coffee and this was bad. From there on it got worse every minute, so eventually I set up the camping cooker outside, she boiled some water and got her coffee. Our neighbor had a similar issue but he wasn't really worried. He would just move from his house to his motorhome, if needed.
Having had a bad start of day, my wife worried. She wanted to know what's going on. I rang the electricity company (after I connected the phone directly to the landline, as the DSL-modem+VoIP box didn't have backup power). The EnBW service hotline kept me waiting a while but eventually I found out that a 30KV line had developed 7 faults for an unknown reason and that repair was not going to be fast, so they were about running a backup cable on the ground until the HT line was fixed.
Our central heating with the water boiler had stopped working, though it runs from oil. Well, the oil burner is powered by electricity. No problem though, it's summer and the water boiler's capacity was enough for baby bath and dish washing. At the end of the blackout we had still 40ºC in there.
Next, we went out for shopping. Due to the blackout, more people than usual were in the streets. I had to unlock the electric garage door opener, so we could get our bikes out. Then at the main road, the traffic light was dead. It took a while until we got across.
Our first stop was the local electronics mart. I wondered how they got along. Well, they had power. The afore-mentioned ground cable had arrived, brought by a truck with a monstrous bobbin. The cable connected to a transformer station at the industrial park. Wherever it crossed a driveway, they had made a little ramp so that cars would be able to go over it.
Next stop was the DIY store. It was pretty dark inside, but I know my way around and on top of that, staff and some customers carried flashlights. My wife used her Streamlight Scorpion from her handbag. We collected all the stuff we needed and went to the checkout. The electronic cash register with its barcode scanner was powered from a generator, running outside the building.
From there we cycled into town. I realized traffic lights were working. The fountain was working. By that time, power was back to the town. We spent some time there buying groceries and visiting the ATM, then took a little rest on a park bench until the baby got bored and we started to worry about our fridge at home.
We cycled back home to our village and this was still without power. Right, the fridge was getting too warm. I decided it was time to buy some fuel for the generator
while my wife started cooking on the camping stove.
I drove the car to the gas station. The assistant explained that nothing there worked without electricity and so I drove on into town, where I managed to fill up my 10 l jerry can with generator fuel. On the way back I realized that Aldi was closed. Back home, I carried the generator and an extension cord up from the cellar and right then, electricity came back.
Yesterday, the local paper / website reported a blackout , the reason being unknown. Today, they write that the reason for it is to be examined..
The electricity company EnBW's website has happy shareholders' news and advertising.
I bet we will be told some reasons once industry starts to ask for compensation.
So what were the issues that impacted us directly ? Lack of hot coffee. Garage doors that have to be opened manually. Dead traffic lights. Shops and gas stations that don't operate normally.
Too bad there was no use for the battery lanterns I had prepared for our neighbors..
From 5am onwards, the town of Emmendingen and several villages around there where without power. The power was restored in the town center after 2 or 3 hours. I live in a village 3km from town, there it took until 2pm until power was back. Amazing. A real blackout, finally.
Now here's the effects:
My wife started the day without coffee and this was bad. From there on it got worse every minute, so eventually I set up the camping cooker outside, she boiled some water and got her coffee. Our neighbor had a similar issue but he wasn't really worried. He would just move from his house to his motorhome, if needed.
Having had a bad start of day, my wife worried. She wanted to know what's going on. I rang the electricity company (after I connected the phone directly to the landline, as the DSL-modem+VoIP box didn't have backup power). The EnBW service hotline kept me waiting a while but eventually I found out that a 30KV line had developed 7 faults for an unknown reason and that repair was not going to be fast, so they were about running a backup cable on the ground until the HT line was fixed.
Our central heating with the water boiler had stopped working, though it runs from oil. Well, the oil burner is powered by electricity. No problem though, it's summer and the water boiler's capacity was enough for baby bath and dish washing. At the end of the blackout we had still 40ºC in there.
Next, we went out for shopping. Due to the blackout, more people than usual were in the streets. I had to unlock the electric garage door opener, so we could get our bikes out. Then at the main road, the traffic light was dead. It took a while until we got across.
Our first stop was the local electronics mart. I wondered how they got along. Well, they had power. The afore-mentioned ground cable had arrived, brought by a truck with a monstrous bobbin. The cable connected to a transformer station at the industrial park. Wherever it crossed a driveway, they had made a little ramp so that cars would be able to go over it.
Next stop was the DIY store. It was pretty dark inside, but I know my way around and on top of that, staff and some customers carried flashlights. My wife used her Streamlight Scorpion from her handbag. We collected all the stuff we needed and went to the checkout. The electronic cash register with its barcode scanner was powered from a generator, running outside the building.
From there we cycled into town. I realized traffic lights were working. The fountain was working. By that time, power was back to the town. We spent some time there buying groceries and visiting the ATM, then took a little rest on a park bench until the baby got bored and we started to worry about our fridge at home.
We cycled back home to our village and this was still without power. Right, the fridge was getting too warm. I decided it was time to buy some fuel for the generator
while my wife started cooking on the camping stove.
I drove the car to the gas station. The assistant explained that nothing there worked without electricity and so I drove on into town, where I managed to fill up my 10 l jerry can with generator fuel. On the way back I realized that Aldi was closed. Back home, I carried the generator and an extension cord up from the cellar and right then, electricity came back.
Yesterday, the local paper / website reported a blackout , the reason being unknown. Today, they write that the reason for it is to be examined..
The electricity company EnBW's website has happy shareholders' news and advertising.
I bet we will be told some reasons once industry starts to ask for compensation.
So what were the issues that impacted us directly ? Lack of hot coffee. Garage doors that have to be opened manually. Dead traffic lights. Shops and gas stations that don't operate normally.
Too bad there was no use for the battery lanterns I had prepared for our neighbors..
