Dedicated power

ieales"both a recording studio and a mastering lab had issues from underground transformers"
I have never heard of such a thing are these  transformers between substation and end user is that allowed in your country?

builder3"Very unreliable electric service?Thank you very much for this information, which I find "suspect". Good grief. Flooding has caused a lot of problems, depending on the severity. The solution, of course, would be to not allow anyone to live near any of the thousands of miles of seacoast, nor near any rivers or streams. I think if we displace 50-100 million citizens living along the Mississippi and Missouri drainages, for a start, we can nip this problem in the bud."

You are very welcome and might choose to consider that floods are also an ongoing issue across much of the globe including Europe and Scandinavia and yet power outages lasting for weeks on end as a result of flooding just does not happen what you find acceptable electrical service would be considered of "third world" quality in many parts of the world.

ieales"Where all the services are underground, there are vaults with transformers.In my current location we have small above ground transformers every few houses and a large vault with a larger transformer."

I understand underground electric service but I have never heard of the transformers themselfs actually being installed underground or what some would call "below grade" and that would be for the reason you mention that it would be subject to the results and effect of flooding.

jea48"There are at least 5 million of them across the US. They are quite common in large cities in the north. Downtown NYC is full of them. In many cases below the sidewalks in front of buildings. How is water kept out of the vaults? Sump Pumps for one."

Thank you very much for this information which I find "suspect" as a matter of practice but it explains a lot the US has a reputation for very unreliable electric service and having now done some Googling on this purely for curiosity I see that flooding has often caused massive power outages sometimes lasting for weeks!

builder3"I did a bit of research before replying. I’d have to say that the big difference is probably that in the U.S., the flooding very often comes hand in hand with some very serious storms. These would be the occasions that people might be without power for extended periods. I couldn’t find any record of huge storms in Europe"


It is apparent and evident that you are not so good at what you call "research" and you are equally unfamiliar with history and science. It will obviously surprise you to learn that weather is everywhere across the planet and that includes extreme weather the US is not the only place in the world that has extreme weather. If you really thought the US was the only place for floods and other extreme weather you’d think you lead the world on climate change efforts, intitiatives, and programs but instead you come in "dead last" as you say.

Blaming two week power outages on weather is like saying that other American excuse "the dog ate my homework." Other posters here have explained the condition of your electric system and it is obviously not good it is "third world" I could tell you more but you wouldn’t believe me.