Difference Between Blackout and Power Outage

With temperatures and humidity levels soaring across the country, many people turn on their air conditioners. And while it’s understandable, it can lead to power outages. Meanwhile, severe summer storms have also become common this season, causing power outages in hot weather.

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Both blackouts and blackouts tend to happen more frequently during the summer, so it’s good to be aware of the differences between the two. Here’s what you need to know.

Difference between dimming and dimming

Both blackouts and blackouts can leave you without power, but there are a few key differences you should be aware of:

Blackouts

A blackout is a complete power outage. While some of them last only a few minutes, others can occur over several hours or even several days. It largely depends on what caused the outage in the first place and how difficult it is to fix the problem. Some common causes of blackouts include :

  • Damaged transformers or power lines (due to hurricanes, fallen trees and/or accidents)
  • Increased demand for electricity that is pushing the grid beyond its capacity
  • Lightning strikes on electrical poles
  • Underground power lines disrupted
  • Icing of power lines

Brownouts

While blackouts are usually caused by situations beyond the power company’s control (such as bad weather and accidents), blackouts happen by design . Blackouts occur when power demand approaches capacity (for example, an entire city turns on the air conditioner on the same day), and to prevent network congestion, the power company restricts power to certain areas.

When homes in the area experience a power outage, they still have electricity, but at a much lower voltage level than usual. Thus, although you can turn on the lamp, it will be relatively dim.

“Rolling” blackouts and “scheduled outages”

Sometimes, when a power company knows that the grid will be operating at its limits, it may decide to introduce a deliberate “permanent” blackout. This usually happens in multiple areas for a limited period of time and usually comes through a last-minute announcement from the power company.

But a rolling blackout is not the same as a “planned shutdown”. Those are usually scheduled much earlier for scheduled maintenance.

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