High grid voltage advice

[Grommit100]

Hi,

When we moved into this house about a year ago I had a car charger installed and started getting grid voltage high warnings from it. I then had solar fitted in May this year and have been getting pretty constant warnings of high grid voltage since. I reported to ukpn and they sent an engineer to investigate. He confirmed it was too high and said the transformer needed “tapping down a bit”. He couldn’t do it then but put in a request for it to be done. After several phone calls to ukpn they agreed to fit a monitor to record voltage at my meter.

The result was excessive voltage with a maximum of 264v.

Since then I have been on the phone three times a week trying to get this adjustment made. I said I am concerned about possible damage caused by this over voltage, they said that they are not responsible for any damage so there would be no claim were that to happen.

So far there has been no damage I am aware of but obviously I don’t want the risk, does anyone know where I stand? I keep complaining about it, they’ve “raised it” with their complaints team but nothing seems to get done.

I’ve been recommended voltage surge protectors in the house which I have on computer/audio equipment. And apparently you can get ones that fit between your meter and consumer unit but once they’ve stopped a surge they need replacing which sounds costly…

Thanks for any help

 

[old duffer]

Hi,

When we moved into this house about a year ago I had a car charger installed and started getting grid voltage high warnings from it. I then had solar fitted in May this year and have been getting pretty constant warnings of high grid voltage since. I reported to ukpn and they sent an engineer to investigate. He confirmed it was too high and said the transformer needed “tapping down a bit”. He couldn’t do it then but put in a request for it to be done. After several phone calls to ukpn they agreed to fit a monitor to record voltage at my meter.

The result was excessive voltage with a maximum of 264v.

Since then I have been on the phone three times a week trying to get this adjustment made. I said I am concerned about possible damage caused by this over voltage, they said that they are not responsible for any damage so there would be no claim were that to happen.

So far there has been no damage I am aware of but obviously I don’t want the risk, does anyone know where I stand? I keep complaining about it, they’ve “raised it” with their complaints team but nothing seems to get done.

I’ve been recommended voltage surge protectors in the house which I have on computer/audio equipment. And apparently you can get ones that fit between your meter and consumer unit but once they’ve stopped a surge they need replacing which sounds costly…

Thanks for any help

230v +10%/-6%. This is a DNO requirement. If running outside of these, it is their issue to resolve and nothing to do with the charging equipment. Over voltage is common and happens all the time. You have only noticed this from the warnings but its been happening forever. The DNO will attempt to ignore but keep at them, bombard them with calls and emails and they will respond.
PS if you can explain how "electricity" "flows" back to the "grid" then you will be given the Noble prize lol

 

[flameport]

e been recommended voltage surge protectors in the house which I have on computer/audio equipment. And apparently you can get ones that fit between your meter and consumer unit but once they’ve stopped a surge they need replacing which sounds costly…

Surge protection is of no use for long duration overvoltage.
It's designed to deal with transient overvoltage with a duration of microseconds, each transient being in the range of hundreds to thousands of volts, and do that many times, with the device typically lasting for years.

There are devices to deal with long duration overvoltage, but as those react by disconnecting the supply, they are for equipment protection only and won't fix the overvoltage problem.

 

[JohnD]

I don't know what damage it will do. Old fashioned incandescent bulbs would have had a shorter life, but modern lamps are very tolerant of voltages, and so is electronic equipment. I suppose an immersion heater would run a bit hotter, but is well-cooled. Components in appliances I have looked at seem to be rated at around 275 or 400V

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

PS if you can explain how "electricity" "flows" back to the "grid" then you will be given the Noble prize lol

'Export' perhaps?

 

[ericmark]

I don't know what damage it will do.

In the main, it will shut down the solar panels, and the EV charger, most to guard against loss of PEN have auto shut down if voltage is out of range.

In the last house I had a fluorescent lamp, the old 5 foot 65 watt fat tube, and the volts were around 250 volts, when I could no longer get the fat tubes, I went to 58 watt, the tube life reduced from around 10 years to 5 years, but that was OK, then we had a whole load of solar panels fitted on the estate, and the voltage dropped to 230 volts, and the fluorescent tubes would only last 4 months before they would fail to strike, so went to LED.

I also did an experiment in Sizewell 'B' with fluorescent tubes, they were 110 volt, and uses an auto transformer to step up to 230 volts. They had two options 110 volts or 127 volts, the current difference was rather large, at 110 volts around 0.9 amp, and at 127 volts around 0.6 amps. Today with electronic ballasts there is not the problem, but with the old fluorescent lamps the voltage was very important.

There was at one point a special consumer unit with a correction auto transformer built in, but it should not be down to the user to correct, maybe the way forward it to request a compensation form to pay you for loss of solar, and having to charge the EV away from home, I would not think such a form exists, but if you tell them you intend to claim, maybe they will work a bit faster.

 

[Grommit100]

Thanks all for your replies,

The biggest problem I’ve got so far is that the car charger refuses to charge when it senses an over voltage or throttles back the charge output which is most of the time. Also the risk of damage is a concern although by the sounds of it this is unlikely, though when I voiced this to ukpn they said they are not responsible for any damage arising due to their faulty supply!

I know this is not a new problem, and I know someone else in the village who’s been waiting well over 18 months for ukpn to sort the over voltage.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

The biggest problem I’ve got so far is that the car charger refuses to charge when it senses an over voltage or throttles back the charge output which is most of the time. Also the risk of damage is a concern although by the sounds of it this is unlikely, though when I voiced this to ukpn they said they are not responsible for any damage arising due to their faulty supply!

Likely, you are close to the substation, and others are much further away. If they turn it down a bit, those others will then suffer too low a voltage, hence their reluctance to deal with the problem.

 

[Grommit100]

Thanks Harry,

We are about 50-60m from the overhead transformer which apparently feeds this estate, although quite some distance from both the local substations, haven’t heard of any other complaints from the estate but unless people are using equipment that monitors grid voltage they’ll not be aware of it.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Thanks Harry,

We are about 50-60m from the overhead transformer which apparently feeds this estate, although quite some distance from both the local substations, haven’t heard of any other complaints from the estate but unless people are using equipment that monitors grid voltage they’ll not be aware of it.

Were it me, I would try to do a bit of investigation of my own - Wire your meter to a 13amp plug, to make it quicker/easier, and knock on a few doors, express your concerns, asking if you can check their voltage.

 

[Grommit100]

Good idea, the neighbours are all nice people don’t think they’d have a problem with that.

 

[JohnD]

you can get a plug-in voltage monitor, I use one, I see the voltage go up on sunny days when solar panels are working.

 

[Alec_t]

Contact the Energy Ombudsman?

 

[old duffer]

'Export' perhaps?

is that in an export crate?

 

[SpecialK]

Follow their formal complaints procedure in writing. If the outcome is not satisfactory after 8 weeks complain to the ombudsman.