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From: Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org>
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design
Subject: Re: The Spanish Grid Drop-out - recently released information.
Date: Tue, 13 May 2025 14:42:00 +1000
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On 13/05/2025 8:19 am, john larkin wrote:
> On Mon, 12 May 2025 12:42:11 -0700, Don Y
> <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> wrote:
> 
>> On 5/12/2025 7:31 AM, Theo wrote:
>>> A naive question: why do we need to get these signals from the grid at all?
>>> Why can't we broadcast a synchronisation message on something like LW radio
>>> that is picked up by every generator large or small?  Then the network
>>> operator can monitor what's happening and adjust the signal as appropriate.
>>
>> How have we managed to distribute electrical power over huge swaths of land
>>from multiple independent operators WITHOUT such a mechanism?
> 
> Big steam turbines with lots of spinning inertia and boilers full of
> gigajoules of superheated water. And enough 24/7 local generation so
> we don't need to import power from France.

Spinning inertia and boilers fulln of super=heated steam are just energy 
reservoirs. So are grid scale batteries. Getting excited about the 
former and ignoring the latter is clear evidence of sloppy thinking.

> And no commitments to take (or pay for) power that we don't need.

Back in 2008 the book

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot,_Flat,_and_Crowded

got published. It advanced the idea that electric car batteries could 
help stabilise the grid (Tesla Powerwalls are just electric car batteries).

Nobody likes the idea that their assets are being used without their 
explicit permission, but participants would be paid  for their help.

-- 
Bill Sloman, Sydney