Did you knock it off line with your trawler Ed..?? :razz:

GFI should behave the same in a outage as regular receptacle. Unless there's been a ground fault, why would they trip?

Should be, but there have been lots of reports of "picky" GFI outlets that trip in situations like this, especially "flickering" power as the title of this thread indicates.

Why would they all go down in such synchrony? I mean, I understand power demand is/was a little higher, but I wouldnt see that affecting the actual generation stations, just the power grid for moving electricity.

Chris

Hmmm California, Ohio (the source of the east coast blackout) and Alberta all having strange power problems and rolling blackouts. Couldn't be related to deregulation could it.....

Remember folks, it's not only about higher prices, there are other benefits to deregulation!

We had our power flicker sometime last week. All of our outlets are GFIs. In both the flickering and the black out, power to our tanks went back on with no problem.

Anyone see ENRON "The Smartest Guys in the Room" documentary? In California it was the Enron traders making calls to the power stations to convince them to go off line or reduce there capacity because they would say the demand was lower (which it wasnt) resulting in the cost of power to increase therefore increasing Enrons profits while creating widespread power outages.

Yes, but if there have been reports of picky outlets, then either it CAN happen, although very rarely, or a few people might occasionally incorectly wire them... either way, I'd rather have a guarentee that the power will come back, rather than sit and worry from a distance away whether my outlets tripped or not.

Isnt it possible to run the actual current through regular outlets and run all the grounds somewhere else? Could you have some sort of 'master GFI' that... would only cut power if it detected flow through the ground wire, in which case a power flicker should not affect it? Or am I just out to lunch?:razz:

Anyways...

Well, probably a really stupid question since I was slightly paying attention to the Enron ordeal... but, what did Enron do? What kind of corp/comp were they?

Thanks:wink:

Chris

That is what I was essentially what I was getting at. Enron certainly wasn't the only company involved in shenanigans with the Calfornia market at the time either.

The government announced they are going to investigate the current situation today. There's no evidence that anyone has been messing around trying to run up prices but I certainly wonder how all these companies end up doing maintenance at the same time. I understand that not all of it is planned outages, stuff happens but I'm wondering why these companies can't talk to each other and maybe plan maintenance windows better.

Yeah, thats what I didnt/dont get... I mean as I said above, its not the heat wave causing the problems with the power companies... all the draw from the city only messes with the dristribution grid... but when different plants etc.. are having problems that doesnt make sense...

Im still a little lost with some of the international complications you are all talking about though:lol: