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Title: Problems at Manchester Airport 23 June Post by: TaplowGreen on June 23, 2024, 14:24:22 BBC News - Power failure halts flights from two Manchester Airport terminals - BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c722ppxldldo Title: Re: Problems at Manchester Airport 23 June Post by: broadgage on June 25, 2024, 18:35:56 As with railways, have they not heard of standby generators ? able to supply about 25% of normal lighting and 100% of other important services, excluding non important catering and retail.
AND UPS systems for the most critical services including those those that cant tolerate even a brief power loss whilst waiting for a generator to start. Title: Re: Problems at Manchester Airport 23 June Post by: ChrisB on June 25, 2024, 19:40:50 How big do you suppose the UPS battery array would need to be to keep running all the IT systems at that airport?
Title: Re: Problems at Manchester Airport 23 June Post by: broadgage on June 25, 2024, 21:53:28 How big do you suppose the UPS battery array would need to be to keep running all the IT systems at that airport? Probably several hundred kilowatts ! Maybe smaller with sensible design, remembering that only the most critical parts need UPS protection. A lot of ancillary equipment can be shut down until the generators start. Title: Re: Problems at Manchester Airport 23 June Post by: stuving on June 25, 2024, 22:24:24 If you read far enough down that BBC story, it says:
Quote Airport managing director Chris Woodroofe said a "fault with a cable had caused a power surge that took down security systems and baggage screening". ... The airport's back-up power came on when the primary system went down, but the situation was complicated by mains power cutting out multiple times. In my view "power surge" is a rather lazy explanation; power does not surge all on its own. It usually takes something like overvoltage (e.g. from lightning), a fault (e.g. to earth), or switching power at the wrong time. This case looks like a version of the last of those. AIUI, this cable is part of the airport's own system, not the DNO/ENO's. I imagine that IT systems have UPSs if they need them, and after a while would be manually switched over to the emergency generator. It should be possible to make that power system immune to whatever the returning mains might do, but I'm not surprised that was not the case. Title: Re: Problems at Manchester Airport 23 June Post by: GBM on June 26, 2024, 06:18:24 As with railways, have they not heard of standby generators ? able to supply about 25% of normal lighting and 100% of other important services, excluding non important catering and retail. Going back many years ago, we had a standby genny which kicked in when we had a power cut.AND UPS systems for the most critical services including those those that cant tolerate even a brief power loss whilst waiting for a generator to start. We tested it every week with a manual change over; worked like a charm. Mostly when we had a power cut/surge it rarely kicked in! Title: Re: Problems at Manchester Airport 23 June Post by: Electric train on June 26, 2024, 19:11:29 If you read far enough down that BBC story, it says: Quote Airport managing director Chris Woodroofe said a "fault with a cable had caused a power surge that took down security systems and baggage screening". ... The airport's back-up power came on when the primary system went down, but the situation was complicated by mains power cutting out multiple times. In my view "power surge" is a rather lazy explanation; power does not surge all on its own. It usually takes something like overvoltage (e.g. from lightning), a fault (e.g. to earth), or switching power at the wrong time. This case looks like a version of the last of those. AIUI, this cable is part of the airport's own system, not the DNO/ENO's. I imagine that IT systems have UPSs if they need them, and after a while would be manually switched over to the emergency generator. It should be possible to make that power system immune to whatever the returning mains might do, but I'm not surprised that was not the case. "Power surge" is a term used by non electrical people as a lazy way to understand / explain a power failure. As with railways, have they not heard of standby generators ? able to supply about 25% of normal lighting and 100% of other important services, excluding non important catering and retail. Going back many years ago, we had a standby genny which kicked in when we had a power cut.AND UPS systems for the most critical services including those those that cant tolerate even a brief power loss whilst waiting for a generator to start. We tested it every week with a manual change over; worked like a charm. Mostly when we had a power cut/surge it rarely kicked in! There is only so much back capacity that is economically viable to install, usual rule of thumb preservation of life / people safety systems first eg ATC, fire fighting evacuation systems. In convinced passengers would not be regarded as a safety system This page is printed from the "Coffee Shop" forum at http://gwr.passenger.chat which is provided by a customer of Great Western Railway. Views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that content provided contravenes our posting rules ( see http://railcustomer.info/1761 ). The forum is hosted by Well House Consultants - http://www.wellho.net |