Thursday 27 January 2011

Reader's Question: Why do we keep getting those annoying little power cuts?

(By e-mail on JimenaPulse) "Can anyone tell me why we keep getting those annoying little power cuts that turn off the computers and damage all kinds of things like fridges, etc.? Thanks, Andrea." Your favourite website went to find out, Andrea. Nobody at Endesa could tell us over the phone, not even at the press office in Madrid! So we went straight to our local sources and discovered the simple answer:>
Our old friend José, who once upon a time was the electricity man for a very large area of the Campo de Gibraltar and himself used to climb up poles and do other such dangerous things for the Sevillana company told us that when they began planting eucalyptii (is that the plural?) all over the place, nobody realised how very flexible these ubuquitous tress are. Nor how quickly they grow.

"Right," said we, "but what's that got to do with power cuts?"

"The branches touch the cables on a wet day and bang goes the light..." says José.

He insists that the personal touch he used to give by knowing every inch of the network of cables circling overhead allowed him to also know which tree was growing where. "Nowadays they subcontract the work to companies that have no local knowledge."

Enquiring about other reasons for the cuts, José tells us, "Have you seen the state of the cables and boxes in the streets?"

To which we might add that Endesa does not seem to be aware that we are actually in the 21st century, and that those cables, particularly the high voltage ones out on the hills should be underground, not within reach of tree branches.

And incidentally, did you know that there was, and is, elecric power in the vast majority of places that were, and are, flooded in Australia? Because the cables are underground, is why.

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