`UK Grid says risk of power cuts next winter’ runs the headline of a Reuters’ report on June 4. An article by the Daily Express’s environment editor John Ingham on August 15 adds:
`A spokesman for National Grid Transco, which runs both the electricity and gas supply networks, admitted that a cold spell could lead to “some form of demand control”. He added: “This would most probably be voltage reduction, which most customers would not notice.”
But some customers certainly will. Many types of electrical and electronic equipment, such as medical scanners, digital UV printers and the like, will not work properly if the supply voltage falls appreciably below the manufacturer’s recommended limit. The position is likely to be exacerbated if a fixed ratio energy-saving (voltage reducing) transformer has been fitted, as the effect will be to make an already low voltage even lower.
Much of the installed equipment will operate satisfactorily, and indeed with a reduction in energy consumption and cost, so the answer is to fit a voltage stabiliser on critical equipment only.
Large installations consuming considerable power, for example a medical scanner, should have an individual stabiliser fitted. In other cases, especially where a number of low consumption critical items are in the same location as non-critical, it is worth running a supply cable fed from a suitably rated stabiliser and feeding sockets specifically labelled `stabilised supply’.
Claude Lyons will be very pleased to advise and recommend suitable stabilisers and installation configurations.