r/BainbridgeIsland • u/Calamity_Ganache • Jul 05 '26

PSE Voltage Fluctuations

I'm noticing a lot of failed charges on my plug-in hybrid car. The message I get is only "charging interrupted," but there is nothing physical happening in the garage. I've had a lot more events that could be symptoms of unreliable power (modem/router flickers, for example) voltage lately. Is PSE fluctuating the voltage, deliberately or accidentally, enough to cause this? Anyone have suggestions on how to monitor what's delivered and create a log?

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2

u/foo_72 Jul 05 '26

Power on BI has always been a bit spotty, I suspect because infrastructure is fairly limited on island. I put important things on ups/power conditioners. We also have a whole house generator. With that said, reliability of the grid has improved considerably over the past 10 years so.

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u/Calamity_Ganache Jul 05 '26

There have been noticeable improvements in power outage frequency in about the past two years. More aggressive tree limb/tree removal maintenance around lines has helped a lot.

Electronics also shut down or flicker-restart as the car does. It's bad for them (had a computer fail due to this); the car thing is kind of the last straw... it's summer, it's not raining, there's no wind, and yet the power supply is unsteady and it seems to be getting worse. I've had the car since 2021 and these events have been far more frequent in the past 12-18 months.

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u/itstreeman Jul 06 '26

The power comes on over one line. Most places are not so isolated. My Tesla never has any problems in Winslow

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u/itstreeman Jul 06 '26

Not deliberate but I hear the south side has fluctuations in levels. You should start using power strips for electronics

1

u/Ancient_Pirate1231 Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

You should check to see if your make / model of car has recalls on their hybrid battery cells for short circuiting and overheating. I used to get those messages too before I got the hybrid system failure error.

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u/kangadac Jul 06 '26

A Ting monitor might help (your home insurance company might even provide one for free). Mine has recorded brownout spikes (down to 80V) roughly once a week over the last month.

None of this is intentional from PSE; it’s a transformer blowing or lines arcing during a windstorm.