Re:Continuing frequency deviation in the Continental Europea...
by hollander on Wednesday March 07, 2018 @09:01AM
(#16536348)
If stations are not in sync, will that mean they cancel eachother out like with soundwaves and anti-sound?
Re:Continuing frequency deviation in the Continental Europea...
by wglb on Wednesday March 07, 2018 @11:48AM
(#16537640)
No, it is worse than that.
If you think of two generators connected together in a power grid, they need to have the same frequency and the same phase. If one of the generators slows a little bit, it begins drawing current from the other. It in effect becomes a motor. Power flows as a proportion to the difference in phase angle.
Re:Continuing frequency deviation in the Continental Europea...
by clord on Wednesday March 07, 2018 @10:56AM
(#16537223)
All the other generators in that grid will drive the out-of-sync station like an electric motor at a faster or slower speed until it's synched up. In effect that's what's happening in the article. Unaccounted load is pulling other generators down, making the frequency unexpectedly low.
Perhaps they're not using just frequency to coordinate (solar/wind perhaps needs a sidechannel?), and someone on their grid in a politically unstable area is using power without reporting on the side-channel. Hence the frequency drops due to the unaccounted load.
Re:Continuing frequency deviation in the Continental Europea...
by baq on Wednesday March 07, 2018 @12:55PM
(#16538267)
An old joke says that the power plant starts rotating around the generator.
Re:Continuing frequency deviation in the Continental Europea...
by radiowave on Wednesday March 07, 2018 @09:16AM
(#16536450)
I imagine that they might cancel out, given limitless current flows between them. In practice, something would go bang long before that happened.
Re:Continuing frequency deviation in the Continental Europea...
by XorNot on Wednesday March 07, 2018 @04:52PM
(#16540262)
You're missing resistance losses, essentially. They would do no work (no real power component to the load impedance mismatch) but I^2 * R means the complex component would be entirely lost to transmission lines / coil windings.
But the effect is as you say: something goes bang.
Re:Continuing frequency deviation in the Continental Europea...
by adamcharnock on Wednesday March 07, 2018 @08:43AM
(#16536235)
Ah, this is very interesting. Thank you.
Once the generators are switched in, they'll inherently maintain sync, as even if there's too little motive power being supplied by the station's turbines, the difference will be made up by the power grid itself, which will drive the generators round like an electric motor. (Typically this would happen for a brief period after coming online, after which the station would throttle up and start helping to push the generators round.)