Narrative:

Emergency electrical configuration ECAM warning began to cycle rapidly. Cycle was 1-2 seconds and was continuous with the aural warning also cycling. I gave the first officer the aircraft and looked at the electrical systems page on the lower ECAM which indicated the AC bus 1 and AC bus 2 with amber boxes. The indications were not what one would expect with a true loss of AC busses 1 and 2...the RAT had not deployed; [and] the screens and instruments were normal.the ECAM directed both engine generators to be turned off then back on. I was hesitant to do this so I attempted cycling each generator individually to see it would resolve our problem without having to go on battery power with the likely extension of the RAT. It did not resolve the issue. I elected to follow the ECAM procedure and cycled both engine generators off then on. The RAT deployed; but the problem was fixed. While dealing with the problem; we momentarily encountered an overspeed of .83 mach which was corrected. We discussed our options and elected to divert. I got dispatch and maintenance control on the radio and discussed the malfunctions and current aircraft condition. It was agreed that we would divert. The condition of the aircraft was that the RAT was deployed; plus the autopilots and autothrottles were unusable. I started the APU at 10;000 as an electrical backup. We also extended the gear for the last 15 minutes of flight to burn fuel which brought us below normal landing weight. Weight on landing was approximately 136;800. A normal landing was made on runway 28 with a longer rollout to keep brake temperatures lower.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Following repeated cycles of the an Emergency Electrical Configuration ECAM warnings an A319 flight crew followed ECAM directed procedures; deployed the RAT and returned to their departure airport.

Narrative: Emergency Electrical Configuration ECAM warning began to cycle rapidly. Cycle was 1-2 seconds and was continuous with the aural warning also cycling. I gave the First Officer the aircraft and looked at the electrical systems page on the lower ECAM which indicated the AC Bus 1 and AC Bus 2 with amber boxes. The indications were not what one would expect with a true loss of AC Busses 1 and 2...the RAT had not deployed; [and] the screens and instruments were normal.The ECAM directed both engine generators to be turned off then back on. I was hesitant to do this so I attempted cycling each generator individually to see it would resolve our problem without having to go on battery power with the likely extension of the RAT. It did not resolve the issue. I elected to follow the ECAM procedure and cycled both engine generators off then on. The RAT deployed; but the problem was fixed. While dealing with the problem; we momentarily encountered an overspeed of .83 Mach which was corrected. We discussed our options and elected to divert. I got Dispatch and Maintenance Control on the radio and discussed the malfunctions and current aircraft condition. It was agreed that we would divert. The condition of the aircraft was that the RAT was deployed; plus the autopilots and autothrottles were unusable. I started the APU at 10;000 as an electrical backup. We also extended the gear for the last 15 minutes of flight to burn fuel which brought us below normal landing weight. Weight on landing was approximately 136;800. A normal landing was made on Runway 28 with a longer rollout to keep brake temperatures lower.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.