Squirrels are a leading cause of outages and blips across the country, with thousands of outages per year attributed to these furry neighborhood critters. Events like storms and lightning strikes can cause power surges and outages.
Have you ever experienced lights blinking or shutting off only to come right back on during a thunderstorm or windy day? Maybe you’ve noticed the time on your stove has stopped working when you get home from work. When these things occur, you’ve likely experienced a temporary, short disruption to your electric service. This can be caused by a number of culprits, including power surges and blips. And even though they feel very similar, the two are very different from a utility standpoint.
Power surges explained
Power surges are quick spikes in voltage that exceed the capacity of a circuit, also known as overvoltage, that can damage or destroy electronic equipment in your home or business. Most modern electronics are designed to withstand some spikes in voltage, but power surges can be very damaging to electronics.
Surges can be caused by many things, including high-powered devices cycling on and off, like AC units, HVAC systems with variable frequency drives, other faulty systems within your home, lightning strikes or damage to power lines. One way to protect devices and appliances is to use sure protectors. However, if you find that you have frequent power surges in your home or business, a good rule of thumb is to contact a certified electrician to inspect your electrical system.
Blips, or blinks, explained
Power blips, also known as blinks or glitches, are brief interruptions in electrical service caused by a fault on a power line or protective device that’s reacting to the fault. Faults can have many causes, including squirrels or other small animals coming into contact with an energized line, or perhaps a tree branch touching a line. In our area, we have found that squirrels and branches are the usual suspects.
Any time these types of events occur, whether squirrel, vegetation or otherwise, your lights may flicker or even blip as protective devices, acting like circuit breakers, work to detect the fault and protect the system. This means that when a blip happens, you can rest assured that the protective measures put in place are working to prevent a prolonged outage.
When any of these events happen, NRLP crews are dispatched to investigate the cause and take care of any issues to prevent sustained outages. Whether you experience an outage, blip or power surge, we are always ready to respond. Remember, you can report an outage any time by calling 828-264-3671, or emailing nrlp-csr@appstate.edu.
Learn more about outage preparedness
Public power utilities like NRLP are known for reliability. In fact, NRLP has a 99.98% reliability rating. And on average, when public power customers experience an outage, power is restored three times faster than other utility types. But outages can still occur at any time. Wildlife, vegetation and weather events are just some of the common causes of outages. That’s why we encourage all NRLP customers to be prepared. Learning about outage preparedness is one of the many ways you can increase your overall readiness.