Director blows fuse at three power cuts in the same day
| Published date | 12 April 2024 |
| Publication title | Evening Chronicle |
The issue, which Ian claims to be due to a faulty underground cable becoming wet during heavy rainfall, has previously caused three power cuts in one day, as well as an outage on four consecutive days in December 2023.
Each time the Kingston Park company experiences a blackout it takes around four hours to get back up and running as all machines must be restarted and the ink must be replaced.
"You can't run a business like that", said Ian, who has recorded 11 power outages since December 2023. "We can't plan major production when it rains in case there's a power outage. We're almost at the stage where we've lost so much revenue that it's really affecting cashflow."
We're stage lost so revenue really
Ian
Ian said the company experienced power cuts before he became a director in December 2022 but said the issue is becoming worse and said that although Northern Powergrid replaces a substation fuse each time, it does not provide a long-term solution to the problem.
In a letter seen by The Chronicle, Northern Powergrid said power had been restored by replacing a substation fuse four times between December 5, 2023, and January 30, 2024.
The letter said: "When the substation fuse operates, this is usually an indication that there is a problem affecting one of our cables (often caused by a small hole which when wet, can become faulty).
"As water and electricity don't mix, the cable becomes hot, which allows it to dry and almost repair itself. Our engineers are then able to replace the substation fuse and restore the power."
The letter added that equipment has been installed at the local substation to help narrow down the fault, however as equipment is deep underground it can take time to locate and resolve.
Ian said: "What they don't seem to grasp is we're a production facility that needs constant power. Every time we have these power outages - even if it's just for five minutes - it takes about four hours to get back up and running.
"The servers have to reset, the communications have to reset, the internal communications that the studio and the high tech stuff needs to talk to the machinery that needs to reset.
at the we've much that it's affecting
Bates "Then the guys have to strip the machines down and take out all of the ink, re-clean the machines and put fresh ink in. We did a calculation...
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