Power Failure

[Nic]

Not the most exciting topic, I know. Sorry.

Today's closure of Legoland Windsor due to power failure has got me thinking. Power problems at the London parks is something that has been well documented in recent years. Thorpe had ongoing problems in the 2007 (I think?) season with several days where they were issuing evac tickets to everyone on site by the early afternoon. Chessington recently (last year/the year before?) had those power cuts which led to "vulnerable people being stranded for hours dangling precariously directly over blood-thirsty lions and tigers OMGONEELEVEN!!!" I'll admit that I pay far more attention to news about the London parks because they're the ones I visit most often. That might be the reason why, but I can't really recall many instances of these kinds of problems elsewhere.

So, are similar power problems common in other parts of the country/world? If not, what makes London so susceptible? Are power failures usually due to circumstances outside of the park's control? If not, are there measures parks can take to minimise the impact? Also, are theme parks more susceptible than other types of major tourist attraction or large industrial plants with a high energy consumption, for example?

 

[Mushroom]

I know Thorpe have 2 different supplies, 1 for each half of the park. Remember the Colossus side of the park had a power failure on opening day 2006 </3

 

[Hixee]

So, are similar power problems common in other parts of the country/world? If not, what makes London so susceptible?

I wouldn't have thought London was anything special. I think the biggest factor that gives you that impression is to do with our interest in the London (or UK) parks, and the fact that we can hear about them much more easily. We pay a lot more attention to what's going on at our 'local' parks than the ones further afield. Now granted, shutting the park for the whole day because of a power outage isn't just a small power-cut lasting for a few minutes/hours, but it's not really the most amazing or newsworthy story. This leads me to think that it probably does happen just as often in other parks, its just we don't really pay enough attention to them to come across the new articles.

Are power failures usually due to circumstances outside of the park's control? If not, are there measures parks can take to minimise the impact?

I'm not particularly clued up on the power usage of parks, but I would have thought most of the systems are pretty stable, so they're unlikely to cause the power outage by tripping or breaking the network. More often that not I would have thought it would be something the park can't do anything about. As for minimising the impact, again, I doubt there's a lot they can do. They'll probably have emergency back-up systems to get guests off the rides in the event of a power-cut, but they won't have enough to run the park. Like Mushy says, a park is unlikely to be fed from one power-line only (or at least I'd be surprised if they did), but there's nothing to say the problem hasn't shut down both of these input lines.

Also, are theme parks more susceptible than other types of major tourist attraction or large industrial plants with a high energy consumption, for example?

Again it depends. I mean when I think of big tourist attractions that aren't theme park I think of things like the London Eye, Dungeon, SeaLife Centres etc and I struggle to believe that (unless we're looking at record breaking attractions in terms of scale) that they'd have anything like the power usage of a big theme park. I mean, some theme parks have aquariums/ferris-wheels etc, so it's basically just one attraction from a theme park. This is purely going off gut instinct, but it just doesn't seem plausible that they'd consume more power. As for large industrial plants, yeah, they'll consume more. There are many big industrial processes (Aluminum 'refining' for example) that require mind-boggling amounts of energy. I think the difference is these systems tend to not really make a huge 'public' fuss if they're shut down for a day. If that kinda makes sense?

So I've not really put any numbers to anything, but I think that's about as good a response as I can give.

 

[Hurri]

In the last eight years I can only remember a full power cut happening once at Adventure Island, and that was due to a road accident further down the seafront knocking the entire seafront out. Luckily the most 'at-risk' rides were all in loading position at the time! The park issued complimentary wristband vouchers for a future visit to every guest, and I believe every business on the seafront was compensated by the electricity company, which must have been a very hefty bill.

And then there's Merlin. I don't go to Alton very often but I've experienced more than one power cut there, and countless at Thorpe. Obviously Chessington and Legoland are affected as well - much more commonly than pretty much every other park in the world. I wonder why this is?

But it happens to the best of 'em - WDW had a section of the resort including part of the Magic Kingdom lose power not too long ago.

 

[Brookes]

I've been at Alton when there's been a power cut, which happened at night whilst Scarefest was running. It runs off 3 separate power supplies and only one of these went down, as far as I can recall, meaning the rest of the park was fine. We got nothing in terms of fastpasses or anything like that - even after standing in the Rita queue for 2 hours. Like Hixee says, they had emergency backup in the form of petrol generators for lighting and getting people off the rides, but there was nothing else they could do until it was fixed.

 

[Ian]

They probably happen more frequently nowadays because loads of immigrants have come in and our existing utilities can't cope.

Daily Mailesque sweeping statements aside, I have no idea.

 

[Gavin]

^It's far more likely to be the gays getting those civil partnerships now. All that sparkle must come at a high energy cost, while also making a mockery of good, CHRISTIAN marriage and family values.

Or it might be the **** weather we've been having.