- Reaction score
- 3,010
This is quite lengthy so get comfy...
I had a bizarre call out relating to a job I attended about five years ago. The situation was they were getting regular short term low voltages across all phases, only a few seconds, but enough to make lights flicker.
In the intervening years they had done precisely nothing.
This is a corporate HQ with data centre covering 5-600 remote locations. If the servers go down they lose half a million a day. This I a multi billion pound outfit.
Anyhow I get a call out to reattend this issue as now the voltage drops are dipping bellow 180V and PCs and such are shutting down, servers are bouncing on and off UPSs and the whole senior management are running round like Micheal Jackson in a Pepsi advert.
On arrival I find that a back up generator had been installed overnight and the DNO were drilling and sniffing for a cable fault.
I'm not entirely sure what I'm there for and ask exactly that question only to be told "we just want you here to explain what's happening"
The installation of the generator had been arrange by one of our competitors, they had subbed it out to a third party and it had been done overnight. All seemed to be working and the generator kicked in a few times.
It now starts to get heated, complicated and bizarre in equal measure.
One of the DNO lads, cocky little so and so (assume you till have a the swear filter) stuck his head into the cutout house and immediately lost interest in fault finding, got on his phone and disappeared. Over the course of the next hour a further seven DNO engineers turned up and entered discussions making noises about disconnecting the generator and pulling the main fuses.
This had the customers going beyond panic and on the phone to the companies solicitors and threats to sue for millions ()
The owner of the competitor contract company turns up and immediately goes off his nut about me being on site and how he is no longer responsible as I'd "stuck my oar in".
The generator subby and an engineer turn up and enter into discussions with the DNO army of engineers, all reasonably polite until they put the subby spark, the subby generator company had hired, on the phone and tells the DNO guy "he hasn't got a flipping
clue what he's talking about" things got very heated.
The contentious issue was where the generator had been tied into the mains.
The cutout was a Bemco unit that splits the TPN incoming 300A supply down into four 100A TPN supplies prior to the meters. (The building had previously been four separate units, hence the bemco).
This left the generator spark two options (at 01:00 in the morning).
1, the correct choice, say it can't be done and needs some considerable modifications.
Or
2, drill and lug onto the busbars between the 300A fuses and the 100A fuses, he chose this one.
It was this that had resulted in half the regions DNO engineers wanting to turn up for a nosy.
At this point one of the clients directors starts shouting at the DNO engineers that the "don't have the right to cut us off" and "we're a billion pound company".
The DNO guys were doing a splendid job of suppressing laughter, barely.
Then a few of the DNO engineers started to state it not their kit but the suppliers, after mains fuses and before meters, whilst others were adamant the whole enclosure was their kit.
More phone calls and more DNO engineers turn up and confirm it is their kit and with no more discussion set about pulling the fuses and disconnecting the generator.
At this point the clients facilities manager vomited as the site went down.
The clients IT department were shouting a running countdown on how long the server UPS batteries had left, like they needed the additional tension.
At this point I was sat in my van with Stealers Wheel, Stuck in the middle playing on the stereo.
Still have no idea what I was there for but the best days paid entertainment I've ever had.
I would love to offer updates but, as you can imagine, I'm not touching this pooiest of sticks.
I had to leave but before I did I overherd one of the DNO saying to the generator guy, "next time you might want to connect the generator after the meters, just saying"
I had a bizarre call out relating to a job I attended about five years ago. The situation was they were getting regular short term low voltages across all phases, only a few seconds, but enough to make lights flicker.
In the intervening years they had done precisely nothing.
This is a corporate HQ with data centre covering 5-600 remote locations. If the servers go down they lose half a million a day. This I a multi billion pound outfit.
Anyhow I get a call out to reattend this issue as now the voltage drops are dipping bellow 180V and PCs and such are shutting down, servers are bouncing on and off UPSs and the whole senior management are running round like Micheal Jackson in a Pepsi advert.
On arrival I find that a back up generator had been installed overnight and the DNO were drilling and sniffing for a cable fault.
I'm not entirely sure what I'm there for and ask exactly that question only to be told "we just want you here to explain what's happening"
The installation of the generator had been arrange by one of our competitors, they had subbed it out to a third party and it had been done overnight. All seemed to be working and the generator kicked in a few times.
It now starts to get heated, complicated and bizarre in equal measure.
One of the DNO lads, cocky little so and so (assume you till have a the swear filter) stuck his head into the cutout house and immediately lost interest in fault finding, got on his phone and disappeared. Over the course of the next hour a further seven DNO engineers turned up and entered discussions making noises about disconnecting the generator and pulling the main fuses.
This had the customers going beyond panic and on the phone to the companies solicitors and threats to sue for millions (
)The owner of the competitor contract company turns up and immediately goes off his nut about me being on site and how he is no longer responsible as I'd "stuck my oar in".
The generator subby and an engineer turn up and enter into discussions with the DNO army of engineers, all reasonably polite until they put the subby spark, the subby generator company had hired, on the phone and tells the DNO guy "he hasn't got a flipping
clue what he's talking about" things got very heated.The contentious issue was where the generator had been tied into the mains.
The cutout was a Bemco unit that splits the TPN incoming 300A supply down into four 100A TPN supplies prior to the meters. (The building had previously been four separate units, hence the bemco).
This left the generator spark two options (at 01:00 in the morning).
1, the correct choice, say it can't be done and needs some considerable modifications.
Or
2, drill and lug onto the busbars between the 300A fuses and the 100A fuses, he chose this one.
It was this that had resulted in half the regions DNO engineers wanting to turn up for a nosy.
At this point one of the clients directors starts shouting at the DNO engineers that the "don't have the right to cut us off" and "we're a billion pound company".
The DNO guys were doing a splendid job of suppressing laughter, barely.
Then a few of the DNO engineers started to state it not their kit but the suppliers, after mains fuses and before meters, whilst others were adamant the whole enclosure was their kit.
More phone calls and more DNO engineers turn up and confirm it is their kit and with no more discussion set about pulling the fuses and disconnecting the generator.
At this point the clients facilities manager vomited as the site went down.
The clients IT department were shouting a running countdown on how long the server UPS batteries had left, like they needed the additional tension.
At this point I was sat in my van with Stealers Wheel, Stuck in the middle playing on the stereo.
Still have no idea what I was there for but the best days paid entertainment I've ever had.
I would love to offer updates but, as you can imagine, I'm not touching this pooiest of sticks.
I had to leave but before I did I overherd one of the DNO saying to the generator guy, "next time you might want to connect the generator after the meters, just saying"
