Member wins $25

YEC Member Q&ACon­grat­u­la­tions to Tonia Collins from Fort Mill. Toni­a’s ques­tion: “Why do my lights ‘blink’ from time to time?” was select­ed to be answered this month and she received $25.

Answer: Momen­tary out­ages occur when a dis­tur­bance on the line is detect­ed. These dis­tur­bances could be caused by a light­ning strike, a squir­rel or tree branch con­tact­ing the line, or a downed line or out­age in a near­by area, etc. If a fault or short cir­cuit occurs on a pow­er line, a device called a reclos­er opens to stop it and then quick­ly clos­es. This device allows pow­er to con­tin­ue flow­ing through the line with only a brief inter­rup­tion of ser­vice rather than caus­ing an extend­ed pow­er out­age. Although the process is quick and usu­al­ly tem­po­rary, it may cause your lights to blink. If the short cir­cuit con­tin­ues, the reclos­er will oper­ate or ‘trip’ three times before even­tu­al­ly stop­ping the flow of elec­tric­i­ty and caus­ing a pow­er out­age. This process pro­tects the lines from dam­age by cut­ting off pow­er to the affect­ed sec­tion of the line and iso­lat­ing the prob­lem until it can be repaired.

To enter the month­ly con­test, sub­mit your ques­tion by email­ing it to Porter.Gable@yorkelectric.net or by mail­ing it to York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive, Inc., P.O. Box 150, York, SC 29745—Attention: SCL Q & A. The dead­line for receiv­ing ques­tions is the first of the month, but ques­tions that come in after the dead­line will be con­sid­ered for the fol­low­ing month.
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Fre­quent­ly Asked Ques­tions