A blink is a brief loss of supply, from a fraction of a second to a few seconds, caused by a breaker or recloser opening for a fault and closing again. The lights go off and come back, digital clocks reset and sensitive equipment drops out, but the event does not count as a sustained outage. Utilities track blinks through momentary interruption indices such as MAIFI, and fuse-saving schemes trade more blinks for fewer long outages.
Customer on Oak Street says her clocks keep blinking, the recloser counter on that feeder went up by six overnight.
Also heard as
- momentary
- momentary interruption
Related terms
Auto-reclose
Automatic closing of a breaker shortly after a fault trip, restoring supply when the fault was only transient.
Sag
Brief drop in RMS supply voltage, usually to between 10 and 90 percent of nominal, lasting up to about a minute.
Trip
To open a circuit breaker automatically through its protection, or to order a breaker open by command.