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From: liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid (Liz Tuddenham)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design
Subject: Re: The Physics Behind the Spanish Blackout
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2025 10:48:45 +0100
Organization: Poppy Records
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Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote:

> On 12/06/2025 6:08 pm, Liz Tuddenham wrote:
> > Waldek Hebisch <antispam@fricas.org> wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > [...]
> >> Instantly dropping loads may be possible, but if it is the
> >> only short term balancing mechanizm, then effect on loads may
> >> be nasty.
> > 
> > That option will become less effective as a greater proportion of the
> > supply is generated by renewables.  Dropping the load may also drop a
> > significant proportion of the supply from local solar and wind sources.
> 
> How? Solar and wind sources are free-standing generators. They don't 
> need any power input from the grid. They do need timing information - to
> set the phase of the AC current that they feed into the grid, but they
> can get that from radio transmissions, and - less directly - from GPS
> signals.

All of that is vulnerable to interruption (by Sod's Law, just when it is
needed),  Compared with just switching off a big load centre by pulling
out a lump of metal, it is a complicated and fussy way to handle an
emergency that needs an instant response.

-- 
~ Liz Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk