Power Issues at Bell Green Retail Park

[JGD]

In other forums there is dialogue arising around the presence of large scale generators behind the new Aldi store and the possibility that the store is using these to supply power.

There is further speculation that Sainsbury's had also suffered power interuption and asks if there is a general supply problem in the area.

It does seem very strange to me too. The cost of generators would be huge.

From what I’ve read on Facebook apparently there are power supply/capacity issues to the park. Shortly before Aldi was due to open, they turned on their fridges etc and it blew out the electricity supply to the whole Bell Green site.

In a separate post Chris Beach complains that the electricity company has failed to respond to his requests for information. Chris - let me enlighten you - you are a correspondent from RTW asking about an issue in Bell Green - how do you think they will prioritise your demands ?

Oddly a week or so ago I went to Sainsbuy’s and they were shut due to a power cut. They evacuated the store and shut it down for several hours so there does appear to be power related issues in Bell Green:

ETA… Just had a quick drive-by round the back as I was passing and there is something under sound proof cladding which was probably what OP was referring to. Didn’t seem overly loud to me but it may not have been in full operation. I wonder if they are running in standby mode ready to kick in on power out…

For resident neighbours with long memories, this is a repeat of problems that existed a long time ago on this site.

When the original Savacentre first opened in the 90's, it quickly became evident that the local supply was inadequate for the store's load needs and when demand exceed supply it tripped the safeties and power was cut.

Those of is in the vicinity endured periods of power outages of lengthy duration with incidents occuring over a protracted timeframe of several months.

Eventually the problem was resolved and the outages ceased.

Interestingly in recent weeks we have had several interuptions - but only a few minutes long.

So, if these generators/transformers are installed to alleviate and mitigate anticipated problems and it means that we have no lengthy interuptions in our supply - so-be-it. As long of course that someone is addressing an upgrade to the supply that meets this expanded site's growing load demands. it might be anticipated for example that Toys-R-Us had no fridges and freezers whereas Aldi will have many - hence the growth in their load demand.

Whilst I cannot speak for residents in Silver Birch Close - the homes closest to Aldi's - my house is very close too and we hear no noise of generators running.

[JGD]

And rather incessantly the correspondent from RTW interferes, complains about the absence of response and gets another lesson in that why would anyone speak to Chris Beach about this.

What can Chris Beach furnish first hand in terms of knowledge.

Noise problem ? From RTW ?

Impact on visual amenity from his home ? An address in RTW that he self-dox'd in an effort to persecute another innocent that he was stalking.



Get with the programme Chris Beach - desist with the buffoonery - you have no presence here in SE23 or SE26 and certainly not in SE6.

[RJM]

It all stems from a post on the Sydenham FB group - snapshotted to drive traffic to that forum. At least the concerned individuals on FB are local - one complained about being able to hear the generators, and "what I've read on Facebook" is entirely from the FB thread.

Of all my concerns about that site, I didn't think of electricity supply! Presumably it's not a quick fix scenario but one where there will be a longer term plan in place?

[Rachael]

I was in Sainsbury’s in December when the power went out and we were all shepherded out.

We live very close to Bell Green and have had some odd flickerings in the last past month, and a complete outage for about 2 minutes a few weeks ago.

[JGD]

You heard it here second.



Chris Beach, self-confessed sock-puppet and stalker, boasts that his personal fiefdoms namely the .life accounts have thousands of followers.

Thousands and thousands, guv.

And that such a strong community voice will apply pressure to make a response. Not that any earth shatteringly important reason has been offered that justifies any demand for an immediate response.

Trouble is, dear boy, the attachment of your isolationist by-line @chrisbeach single-handedly devalues any credibility these accounts might have had.

Honest.

[JGD]

And a quick step-change.

You might spend some effort in trying to clarify who holds the role of organ-grinder-in-chief in .life world by studying this exchange.



Commentary that is entirely speculative about Bell Green adds nothing materially to the post although the report of the equipment located at Beckenham Waitrose is accurate.

Doesn't seem to understand much about new construction and that it will inevitably need to have new and adequate power feeds.

You might think the poster's comment may have been prompted by the organ-grinder when you consider the circle of admiration that is evidenced by @chrisbeach's "like".

And if one is endeavouring to demonstrate or improve one's integrity to the wider community, 'twould be better to not ally yourself to the commentary of someone who has the self-confessed and proven track record of mendacity and history of creative falsehoods that one @chrisbeach possesses.

Evidence of Mr Beach's efforts to incriminate an entirely innocent community resident by fabrication of allegations is still available.

Mr Beach's only real concern that worries him is one of honest people. It is entirely questionable whether he could recognise what honesty is or what it means to people outside his .life-world. His expressed pretensions of living in fear of those with whom he has had disagreements is a another calculated stance and is risible.

He may try to drive fear into them by his threatening falsehoods but truth and evidence that supports it is still on file and it always will prevail.

Or could that all just be the wrong end of the stick ?

[Robin Orton]

Am I the only one getting fed up with JGD hijacking threads for the purposes of her ongoing vendetta with Chris Beach? So boring and deters other people from contributing to the discussion. Could her posts not be moved to a separate thread? 'More reasons why Chris Beach is an absolute rotter' might be a possible title.

[JGD]

Apologies Robin.

The appropriateness of my posts (and I am the OP) will not neccessarily be obvious to all. In this case Mr Beach has been running all over this issue in an effort to demonstrate falsely how relatable he is to the local community and to local issues. As you can see from my post and others in other forums, the general view is that he is not.

But point taken, I will refrain from hi-jacking my own posts.

'More reasons why Chris Beach is an absolute rotter' does not cut the mustard though.

There are many in our community who have been persecuted and victimised by this scoundrel in the most pernicious forms.

What in my writings has or have led you te refer to "her posts" ?

[Robin Orton]

What in my writings has or have led you te refer to "her posts" ?

I think it is courteous to give people the benefit of the doubt if they choose to keep their first names secret. (Yes, I know Robin is a girl's name in the USA. I'm all man however and not ashamed to admit it.)

[JGD]

I think it is courteous to give people the benefit of the doubt if they choose to keep their first names secret.

Not sure that I follow the "keep their first names secret" part.

My name is John Doherty and that is fairly commonly known on this and other local forums. I use JGD (my initials) almost uniformly but not entirely across most platforms and do not engage in anonymised sock-puppetry.

You and I have had exchanges and correspondence in the past, although I cannot recall if I used my first name.

If my recall is even half accurate, I am pretty sure we have attended an FHSoc AGM - and at the same time.

Yeh - so not too much of a secret really.

But then my query was borne of gentle curiosity - not intended to be in the nature of the Spanish Inquistion.

[Robin Orton]

Sorry, John. Getting old and forgetful. Always mix you up with JRW. Robin

[stuart]

Robin you are right to say that Chris Beach gets a bad press and even a deserved bad press isn't the most interesting read even if we all know Mr Beach's frequent acquaintances with the wrong end of the stick are legendary.

This masks the real issue with our Bell Green supermarkets. Both Aldi & SavaCentre are chilly. Made chilly by rows and rows of chilling cabinets presumably being counteracted by heating to stop us customers and staff being reduced to the same temperature. This 24/7/366. An appalling drain on any electricity supply. Nothwithstanding any failure will cost the supermarkets a fortune in ruined food.

Hence the diesel generators. And if you have diesel generators you have to run them regulary flat out to ensure they will work as expected if there is a failure. There is little way to mitigate this problem except if we have less chiller cabinets. One way, as consumers, we can get Aldi, SavaCentre and the rest to do that. Move our consumption towards less perishable food or food that doesn't need chilling.

An obvious choice is less meat, more fruit & veg. This has the quadruple bonus of reducing methane emissions and demand for farmland, less packaging and better health for us. It's not a case of giving up the Sunday roast - but broadening our diets from the non-chilled shelves.

So before we complain about Aldi - perhaps we should look to our own shopping baskets first.

Stuart

[GRP]

Sorry, John. Getting old and forgetful. Always mix you up with JRW. Robin

What a mistak-e to mak-e!

[JRW]

Personally, I am deeply offended....

[Rachael]

This masks the real issue with our Bell Green supermarkets. Both Aldi & SavaCentre are chilly. Made chilly by rows and rows of chilling cabinets presumably being counteracted by heating to stop us customers and staff being reduced to the same temperature. This 24/7/366. An appalling drain on any electricity supply. Nothwithstanding any failure will cost the supermarkets a fortune in ruined food.

I challenged Sainsburys a few years ago about how cold the chiller aisles are in Bell Green. At the time they had the olive oil facing a chiller row and the oil was cloudy, showing how cold it was.

Their reply was interesting. There are two advantages for having the chiller aisles cold. One is that it makes it cheaper to keep the chiller cabinets themselves at the right temperature. The other is that it keeps chilled products cold when they are loaded in the cages for restocking. Those cages are huge, and it takes quite a while for the stock to be moved from the cage to the chiller. If the air in the aisle itself is cold, this extends the time the stock can be out of refrigeration before it has to be dumped.

[stone-penge]

Am I the only one getting fed up with JGD hijacking threads for the purposes of her ongoing vendetta with Chris Beach? So boring and deters other people from contributing to the discussion. Could her posts not be moved to a separate thread? 'More reasons why Chris Beach is an absolute rotter' might be a possible title.

+1

[JGD]

Am I the only one getting fed up with JGD hijacking threads for the purposes of her ongoing vendetta with Chris Beach? So boring and deters other people from contributing to the discussion. Could her posts not be moved to a separate thread? 'More reasons why Chris Beach is an absolute rotter' might be a possible title.

+1

As I said to Robin - I am the OP and started the thread that was about both subjects - Aldi and Chris Beach - have another look if you don't believe me.

I really must desist from whatever it is that is upsetting you.

Truly.

Anyways all change at Aldi's today - see next post for details.

[JGD]

All change, it would seem, at Aldi today.

Had to make a visit to the retail park at Bell Green and decided to look at the kit located outside Aldi.

Reports of it being located to the rear appear out-of-date. There is now a locked timber compound sited to the front of Aldi in its car park.



From the noise there is something like a silenced generator running inside this newly-formed compound. The recorded noise level immediately adjacent to the compound is 65dB. At 10m distance it is 58dB, at 20m it is 55dB and diminishes to 48dB on the service road. These readings were taken in the late afternoon and noise transmission might seem more intrusive in the evening. It would be interesting to know if residents who live above Sports Direct hear any noise in the evenings, as they are now directly in the line of sight.

An extended cable management system has been laid and it provides a cable run to the rear of the Aldi premises.

Blindbear, a poster on another forum suggests they are probably Aggrecko super silent generators. Because the compound is locked it is not possible to confirm this nor can it be established whether they ar gas or diesel powered.

I suspect that the compound should have appropriate safety notices posted but perhaps the compound is so new, they havn't got round to fixing them.

[Rachael]

The question, it seems to me, is who is at fault if the retail park cannot provide sufficient and reliable power supply to Aldi? Were Aldi in full possession of all the facts when they took on the unit and knew they were have to use back-up generators? I can't imagine they ever wanted to have to build a timber storage unit like this right out in front of their store.

[JGD]

In this case - I don't actually know.

But a major difference that can arise between a store refurbishment and a new-build project is one of error of assumptions for a refurb.

For a new-build it is a fundament that designers will know that a new power head will be required and detailed calcs will determine what load demand will be required for the new building and its specific use. The designers will then submit their proposals to a supply company and the supply will be installed to meet the demand - all assuming there is adequate network capacity to provide it.

For refurbs, if engineers assume in error at the outset that existing supply is adequate and a radical re-calculation of the demand load is not required, by virtue of this oversight no submissions will be made to a supply company to upgrade the supply.

So in all probability it's an error. With a slim possibility the local network is max'd out and the additional load demand cannot be met or delivered by the supply company.

Inadequacy of the network capacity would be a repeat of the problem we had to endure when SavaCentre first opened in the 90's and which I described earlier.