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Europe: close to power grid blackout (49,74Hz power line frequency)

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Re: Europe: close to power grid blackout (49,74Hz power line frequency)

#12
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very. It means that the grid suddenly lost a significant amount of generating power.

Or added a ton of load faster than it could ramp up

The graphs show the frequency falling off a cliff, which is more consistent with a sudden loss.

Re: Europe: close to power grid blackout (49,74Hz power line frequency)

#13
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very. It means that the grid suddenly lost a significant amount of generating power.

Or added a ton of load faster than it could ramp up

It could be that, too. But I'm at a loss trying to think of how that much load could be added so suddenly.

Re: Europe: close to power grid blackout (49,74Hz power line frequency)

#14
Romanian news are screaming about several counties (like 1/5 of RO) being blacked out and this being a problem at the interconnection with the neighboring power grids.

From the little I know about power lines, events like this can cascade to half a continent.

Re: Europe: close to power grid blackout (49,74Hz power line frequency)

#15
post #2

As someone who doesn't speak German and has only a cursory understanding of the electrical grid - how significant is this?

In general, slowing frequency is an indicator of a heavily loaded grid. I don't have an appreciation how much the frequency can practically be off the nominal 50 Hz (in Europe) before it indicates grid failure.

does this happen if the heavy load is at region scale? because at small scale (within a village in my experience) the voltage would drop. I didn't measure the frequency though.

Re: Europe: close to power grid blackout (49,74Hz power line frequency)

#17
post #2

As someone who doesn't speak German and has only a cursory understanding of the electrical grid - how significant is this?

In general, slowing frequency is an indicator of a heavily loaded grid. I don't have an appreciation how much the frequency can practically be off the nominal 50 Hz (in Europe) before it indicates grid failure.

This is fascinating to me. What is the mechanism by which this happens? The added load causes an average slow down across the population of actual spinning generator bits?

Re: Europe: close to power grid blackout (49,74Hz power line frequency)

#19
post #3

> If I haven't miscalculated, then this waste means the #Netzfrequenz that there was a sudden drop in power of over 4.5GW. That would be a lot more than a power plant. So junction could get there. https://twitter.com/netz_frequenz/status/1347537615097049101...

At least 3 large power stations. But is that necessarily a loss of supply or could it be a spike in demand? The UK was famous for demand spikes when people turned on kettles during the break in popular soap opras or football games. Maybe a cold day tripped a bunch of houses to turn on their electric heating?

Re: Europe: close to power grid blackout (49,74Hz power line frequency)

#20
Some large energy consumers that also have slow processes (so they can survive a temporary blackout) have contracts that give them cheaper electricity, and in exchange the electricity company is allowed to just cut them off for some time, if load gets too high.
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