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Baltic countries disconnect from the Russian power grid

baltic-grid.sympower.net

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Re: Baltic countries disconnect from the Russian power grid

#12
post #2

On Saturday (8th of Feb), Baltic countries will disconnect from the Russian power grid and synchronise with the Continental European electricity system. They will operate in "island mode" for 33 hours, and then synchronize with the European grid frequency. The frequency is a key parameter of the grid. If there is too much load, it goes down, and if there is too much production it goes up. A lot of critical grid infra…

Off-topic; Why does America use 60Hz? I've never found a satisfactory answer.

A better question is why does Japan use Both 60 Hz and 50 Hz in different areas? And that’s really just a legacy from early decisions at different companies when the grid was first introduced, and there’s never been a sufficiently compelling reason for either to swap.

60 Hz is slightly better in terms of flickering, but neither has enough advantages to really be a determining factor on their own.

Re: Baltic countries disconnect from the Russian power grid

#13
post #2

On Saturday (8th of Feb), Baltic countries will disconnect from the Russian power grid and synchronise with the Continental European electricity system. They will operate in "island mode" for 33 hours, and then synchronize with the European grid frequency. The frequency is a key parameter of the grid. If there is too much load, it goes down, and if there is too much production it goes up. A lot of critical grid infra…

I am endlessly fascinated that the grid frequency across an area the size of entire countries/continents gets driven, at the end of the day, mechanically by countless titanic sized spinning machines that slow down when more load is offered, and vice versa.

Re: Baltic countries disconnect from the Russian power grid

#14
post #2

On Saturday (8th of Feb), Baltic countries will disconnect from the Russian power grid and synchronise with the Continental European electricity system. They will operate in "island mode" for 33 hours, and then synchronize with the European grid frequency. The frequency is a key parameter of the grid. If there is too much load, it goes down, and if there is too much production it goes up. A lot of critical grid infra…

Off-topic; Why does America use 60Hz? I've never found a satisfactory answer.

Things are the way they are because they got that way over time.

Civil infrastructure is legacy systems all the way down. Once a choice is made, it's hard to change. In the city where I am, some of the design decisions date back to the Romans.

Re: Baltic countries disconnect from the Russian power grid

#15
post #2

On Saturday (8th of Feb), Baltic countries will disconnect from the Russian power grid and synchronise with the Continental European electricity system. They will operate in "island mode" for 33 hours, and then synchronize with the European grid frequency. The frequency is a key parameter of the grid. If there is too much load, it goes down, and if there is too much production it goes up. A lot of critical grid infra…

Off-topic; Why does America use 60Hz? I've never found a satisfactory answer.

Whoever chose it must have been aware of the use of 60 in time measurement and its practicality: 60 min/hr, 60 sec/min, 60 cycles/sec.

Re: Baltic countries disconnect from the Russian power grid

#16
post #2

On Saturday (8th of Feb), Baltic countries will disconnect from the Russian power grid and synchronise with the Continental European electricity system. They will operate in "island mode" for 33 hours, and then synchronize with the European grid frequency. The frequency is a key parameter of the grid. If there is too much load, it goes down, and if there is too much production it goes up. A lot of critical grid infra…

Off-topic; Why does America use 60Hz? I've never found a satisfactory answer.

50 and 60Hz were about equal in transmission efficiency but in 1891 Westinghouse engineers decided 60Hz produced less perceptible flickering in light sources.

Re: Baltic countries disconnect from the Russian power grid

#17
post #9

What does it actually mean to disconnect? Is there some physical connection being broken? How is that done?

Yes, they are already keeping the link at 0MW transferred for a while and will now disconnect it. You can read more on Elering's website: https://elering.ee/en/synchronization-continental-europe

Re: Baltic countries disconnect from the Russian power grid

#18

Did they consider connecting to both grids at the same time making a bigger 'supergrid'? If there is insufficient connectivity between the grids and the connections all disconnect due to overload, you just end up back in the two-grids situation that they have planned anyway.

The political situation is not favourable to that.

Re: Baltic countries disconnect from the Russian power grid

#19
post #9

What does it actually mean to disconnect? Is there some physical connection being broken? How is that done?

Yes it's some physical connection being broken. It's not unusual to adjust the ways in which the electrical grid is connected. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q-aVBv7PWM from Practical Engineering which talks about some of the nuances of building switches which can break connections between different parts of the grid safely.

Re: Baltic countries disconnect from the Russian power grid

#20
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Off-topic; Why does America use 60Hz? I've never found a satisfactory answer.

A better question is why does Japan use Both 60 Hz and 50 Hz in different areas? And that’s really just a legacy from early decisions at different companies when the grid was first introduced, and there’s never been a sufficiently compelling reason for either to swap. 60 Hz is slightly better in terms of flickering, but neither has enough advantages to really be a determining factor on their own.

Isn't this a side effect of one area of Japan building their electrical grid with components from British manufactures while the other used American-made components?
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