Re: Grand Apagon - Electricity (not) in Spain

On 08/05/2025 13:43, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> wrote:
 

I don't think I've ever (regardless of where I've lived) experienced
a deliberate power cut.  A drunk may take out a telephone pole or
a branch may fall on some high tension wires but no one has ever
said "sorry, we're turning the lights out" (for whatever reason)

 That was exactly what happened in the UK in the early 1970s; we had a
rota of power cuts lasting 4 hours each.  I made up an automatic
lighting unit based on a car battery for my parents.  It used relays to
switch on when the mains went, then recharge at a fast rate until the
battery voltage rose high enough, then trickle charge.

That was during the various coal miners strikes which were at their peak then. Local newspapers had rotas for planned supply cuts.
ISTR there was still the odd planned power cut even in the late 1970's but they became increasingly rare after that.
--
Martin Brown