Power Outages

Volume 6, Issue 3, March – 2021 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
Power Outages
Luqman Hwayyiz Asaad /senior electrical engineer /Director of electric distribution office
Abstract:- Disconnected electric power from customers There is a linear relationship between the length of
considered as one of the problems that happened and it distribution feeders and outages and duration of outages, in
is unavoidable and causes a lot of damages around the some areas feeder length are above standards that give weak
world. points which causes more problems, below table shows
abnormal length of feeders in district in Iraq.
I. INTRODUCTION
Name of sub Feeder voltage Feeder Length
Power outage is known as cutting the electrical power station in kV No. in km
to consumers, when problem occur in any part of the process Koya Mobile 11 2 120
from power plants to the point of customer delivery, caused TaqTaq 11 8 40
power outage, such as shutdown in power generation, failure Table 1 Feeder length in district in Iraq
in the transmission system or a failure in the distribution
system, cutting electric power to consumers also called a 1.2. Transmission failures
power cut, a power out, a power blackout, a power failure, a Transmission systems are power lines that transmit
power loss, or a blackout. electricity from electric generation area to next step of the
system, usually connected across many different states and
Most power outages will take short time, but some even countries.
type of power outages take much longer up to hours or days
or even weeks. Failures in this part of the system are much rarer than
distribution failures or not cause most of power outages, but
During a power outage, customers suffers from many when they happen, they can have huge consequences and
problems including heating, air conditioning, lighting, hot covers a wide area. Many transmission system failures are
water, or even running water and Sometimes lack of phone caused by weather, wars through direct targeting or bye
service. terror explosion, also this type of outage can happen due to
equipment failure, computer problems, and human error.
II. CAUSES : Sometimes transmission failures occurred as result if
the system not managed properly such as improper design or
There are several effects causes power outages: in case of over loading.
1- Fault on a power lines 2- A brownout

When demand in any electric power system is near or
1.1 Distribution failures above the utility’s maximum production capacity ( load in
Distribution failures known as problems that appear in MW ≥ Production in MW), the utility may intentionally
end part of electric network, this type of outage are the most throttle the flow of electricity in certain areas, resulting in a
common type of power outage, but they usually affect small brownout, this happen especially in the time of peak load
area, when trouble occur in medium voltage lines, low when demand exceed the whole production level. During a
voltage lines and distribution transformers. brownout, electricity is still flowing to your home, but at
lower than usual voltage levels ( Under voltage). The event
Distribution system is a network that feed separate gets its name from the dimming of incandescent light bulbs,
areas with electricity therefore problem in this part usually which is common under brownout conditions.
have a limited impact , affecting just a few block of
customers or a neighborhood, because this part is the end of 3-Supply shortages
the grid system of electric power and directly connected to These outages happen when there is simply not enough
customers electric cable. power production from power plants to meet the demand
which result in power stations tripping. or coldest winter
This type of failure includes conductor cutoff, when people are blasting In most parts of the country, this
insulation breakdown, pole or tower crash and conductor type of outage is most likely to occur on the hottest summer
loosen from insulator and transformers problem days the air conditioning and electricity demand is at its
(transformer burn, link fuse element melt, circuit breakers peak.
trip due to over load or short in low voltage side).
Sometimes outage caused by feeder or transformer over
loading.
IJISRT21MAR486 www.ijisrt.com 848

ISSN No:-2456-2165
This type of power outage is rare because the power For example in Iraq due shortage in power production
system should be managed correctly by suitable plan by there is power lose daily between ( 10-12 hours ) to
building new power plants that cover the demand rising , customers, that mean customers suffer in electric power
when according to standards this type of outage should outage daily due to high difference between demand and
happen only once every ten years. power production, the problem has been worsening for
years, in some areas customer suffer from another problem
In some countries the demand is higher than is feeder and transformer overloading which cause double
production because of unbalance between growth and power cutoff, below table shows daily outage in one district
building new power stations in such cases the trouble in Iraq.
increase year by year and the authorities cannot overcome
the problem because solution need a huge budget to build
many power stations in one time.
14
12 12
10 10
Hours
8 8
0 0 0 0
12/2020 01/2021 02/2021
8 12 10
Month
Table 1 / daily outage in one district in Iraq
4- Animals branches or even whole trees that fall and knock down
Electric power reaches all areas including rural areas, distribution lines, this is the cause of most storm related
it is possible animals appearing around the infrastructure. outages. In some areas trees roots can effect underground
Animals may cause power outages when they climb on or cables.
inside equipment, which can create contact between
components which causes short circuit between energized 7- Public safety power shutoffs and planned or
parts and lines, to prevent this activity done by installing Scheduled outages
custom covers that fit over infrastructure, special fencing In this type of outages electric turn off to customers by
around substations, insulated tape wrapped around wires and order form electric authorities In the case of planned
animal deterrents such as reflectors and disk barriers and in outages, a utility might shut down certain portions of the
case of underground cables to prevent damages use armor grid in order to perform routine maintenance, but there is
type. usually redundancy built into the electric grid that allows
utilities to perform maintenance without shutting off the
5- Weather power.
Weather are some of the most visible causes of power
outages. Weather can damage electrical equipment. Needless to say, intentionally shutting off the power
Lightning strikes are one of the top drivers of customer for what can be extended periods – particularly to millions
outages, storms, high winds and floods may cause of people over multiple days – is simply unacceptable.
collapsing towers and destroy sub stations. In the other hand Utilities can (must!) do better, planned outages are
weather prevent all normal electric teams activities which unavoidable in below :
lead to delay customer service. 1- To perform Periodic maintenance, or to make necessary
extension in the network or to complete large repairs. In this
6- Trees and vegetation type of outages it is possible to notify customers of planned
In several areas growth of trees, vines and other outages before they occur. In case of work in distribution
vegetation on or near infrastructure is an ongoing effort, system, effect small areas but if work includes transmission
strong winds , storms and lightning may knock down lines, outage areas increased.

ISSN No:-2456-2165
2- To avoid power system damages in certain weather mines, to avoid risk may depend on another power sources
conditions (e.g. high winds and low humidity) can elevate such as standby generators, or private solar plant to provide
the risk, for above reasons utilities occasionally decide to emergency equipments with electricity when power off.
shut off the power altogether to ensure their equipment does 6- Planning for a power outage will also help customers to
not start a fire. prepare for emergencies, availability of emergency kit, so
that you and your family can be self-sufficient for essential
8-Equipment failure requirements at least 72 hours during a power outage.
Power outages can happen because of failures in any
equipment at any point in whole power system, Power REFERENCES
delivery system is a large system, and it is possible that
equipments failure occurs, such as transformers in (power [1]. MOE /D . electric control / Erbil
plants, substations, distribution) , insulation breakdowns , [2]. MOE/ D. electric distribution / Koya
control and protection system failures. [3]. University of Vermont Scholar Works.
[4]. www.entergry.com.
9-Public failure [5]. en.wikipedia.org
Some activity that done by public can impact system [6]. Library.uvm.edu
infrastructure and cause service interruptions for electric
customers Examples include vehicle accidents, and unsafe
digging that cause underground cable damages, also
vandalism or metal theft are another causes that lead to
outages due to missing parts of electric system. In some
areas noticed that people robs parts from electric towers
which cause collapsing.
III. CONCLUSION
No doubt we live in a world where electricity has

become essential to everyday life in homes, factories,
hospital, and all other areas. Therefore outages leave bad
effect on families and big damage on economic, to prevent
reaching this bad situation we need to :
1- We should make investments to increase grid resilience to

prevent power outages from happening in the first place, we
should also deploy distributed energy resources and micro
grids that can reduce reliance on the transmission and
distribution systems by building power plants in each center
load to decrease lines. In case of outages due to supply
shortages it should apply planning into the future to ensure
we have enough power plants on the grid. In practice, we
need to apply a suitable plan to overcome load demand
increases by building sufficient power stations because any
delay makes the problem worse and more outages.
2- Electric power distribution infrastructure has aged, and it
need renewable by modernizing the electrical power grid
through weatherization and in deployment of real-time
monitoring systems and move to apply smart grid for
controlling consumption. Installing smart meters are a good
step to correlate with a reduction in outage frequency.
3- Planning to encourage customers to Rationalize use of
electricity and avoid using bad quality of electric
equipments .In the other hand work in order to reduce losses
in electric systems, through this ways it is possible to
decrease demand.
4- When any system suffer from shortage in power
production, load shading or under frequency protection
should activate in many stages to prevent national power
shutdown, by automatically turn off power from some
feeders till system recovered.
5- Power outages causes risk in some services, such as
hospitals, sewage treatment plants, telecommunication and

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Volume 6, Issue 3, March – 2021 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology

1- Fault on a power lines 2- A brownout

IJISRT21MAR486 www.ijisrt.com 848

Table 1 / daily outage in one district in Iraq

IJISRT21MAR486 www.ijisrt.com 849

No doubt we live in a world where electricity has

1- We should make investments to increase grid resilience to

IJISRT21MAR486 www.ijisrt.com 850

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