5 ms·

If your generators are not reliable in the cold, the issue is the placement of them. This is something basic to account for.

cjsuk 9y ago
Yes and no. What the generator vendor says when they sell you the generator and what actually happens 5 years down the line are two different things.
zaarn 9y ago
The problem is usually not "not reliable in cold" but rather, the generators are X years old and the temperature is now changing in Europe from "mostly warm" to "warm over the day and icecold in the night" and finally aiming for "icecold all day", which means any equipment exposed will go through rather severe temperature changes. While generators are usually able to handle this with sufficiently low failure risk, the risk is increase due to the changing temperature
- dx034 9y ago
  It wasn't even freezing overnight at Strasbourg [1], I doubt that the cold could cause any effects at 5C. Maybe they were run once a month but never tested under load? 2x20kv lines failing will have put them at near maximum load immediately, perhaps they weren't designed for that. [1] https://www.accuweather.com/en/fr/strasbourg/131836/daily-weather-forecast/131836?day=1 https://www.accuweather.com/en/fr/strasbourg/131836/daily-we...
  - Piskvorrr 9y ago
    Improbable. Even in a mostly-normal office building, the monthly generator test consisted essentially of "cut the mains power and see that no impact is perceived as UPS, batteries, and autostarted generators bear the load, in their turn for ~2 hrs total."
- hvidgaard 9y ago
  Europe sees that cycle every year, and have been for more than a century, so if they cannot handle that, they should be inside in a heated room.
matthewmacleod 9y ago
Right, but that was obviously just an example. Their generators are almost certainly tested frequently. But there could be any number of causes underlying the failure, and unfortunately sometimes failure does happen.

cjsuk 9y ago

Yes and no. What the generator vendor says when they sell you the generator and what actually happens 5 years down the line are two different things.

zaarn 9y ago

The problem is usually not "not reliable in cold" but rather, the generators are X years old and the temperature is now changing in Europe from "mostly warm" to "warm over the day and icecold in the night" and finally aiming for "icecold all day", which means any equipment exposed will go through rather severe temperature changes. While generators are usually able to handle this with sufficiently low failure risk, the risk is increase due to the changing temperature

dx034 9y ago
It wasn't even freezing overnight at Strasbourg [1], I doubt that the cold could cause any effects at 5C. Maybe they were run once a month but never tested under load? 2x20kv lines failing will have put them at near maximum load immediately, perhaps they weren't designed for that. [1] https://www.accuweather.com/en/fr/strasbourg/131836/daily-weather-forecast/131836?day=1 https://www.accuweather.com/en/fr/strasbourg/131836/daily-we...
- Piskvorrr 9y ago
  Improbable. Even in a mostly-normal office building, the monthly generator test consisted essentially of "cut the mains power and see that no impact is perceived as UPS, batteries, and autostarted generators bear the load, in their turn for ~2 hrs total."
hvidgaard 9y ago
Europe sees that cycle every year, and have been for more than a century, so if they cannot handle that, they should be inside in a heated room.

matthewmacleod 9y ago

Right, but that was obviously just an example. Their generators are almost certainly tested frequently. But there could be any number of causes underlying the failure, and unfortunately sometimes failure does happen.