What Are Those "Blinks?"

Have you ever wondered why you sometimes experience a momentary interruption of power, or “blinking lights?”

While “blinks” may be a temporary aggravation, they are actually indicators that our system is functioning properly.

Blinking lights are a result of momentary outages that occur when some type of disturbance exists on the line. Electrical systems are susceptible to lightning strikes, animals and tree branches coming into contact with energized power lines, or even an automobile striking a pole. Any of these can cause a fault or a short on a power line. Because electrical systems are built to function safely and efficiently, a device called an “oil circuit recloser” (OCR) acts essentially as a breaker, functioning much like a breaker in the electrical panel in your home.

The OCR opens to stop the fault, and then quickly closes back in, resulting in a “blink” in power. If the disturbance on the line persists, the OCR will continue to operate or "trip" two more times and then remain open, resulting in a power outage. This is actually a safety mechanism, protecting the system, the electrical equipment hooked up to the line, and cutting off power to the affected section of the line in order to isolate the problem until it can be repaired. Otherwise, the fault (and the outage) would affect everyone on that particular substation feeder.

The next time you experience a “blink, “be assured that our system is operating properly, protecting electrical equipment and ensuring that as few members as possible experience any resulting outage.

For information regarding how power is restored during an outage, click here.

What can you do to protect your electrical equipment?

Although the weather and nature’s creatures are beyond our control, you can lessen the effects and inconvenience of “blinks” when they occur. When purchasing small appliances and digital clocks, consider a model with battery backup. You may also want to install meter-base surge protection for the major appliances in your home and surge protection with built-in uninterrupted power supply (UPS) for your computer or other electronic devices whose “memory” would be lost with a power interruption.

For more information on how to protect your electrical equipment, click here.