Instead of rolling blackouts when there's a power shortage, why don't we just allow (or deliberately) the voltage and frequency to drop? Wouldn't that make a lot of devices use less?

In the US that's a common technique the utilites usecalled a "brownout" [a]. They'll drop the voltageby five or even ten percent.As to whether this makes any difference with power demandthese days, given the types of loads, is another story.[a] that term is often misused to refer to "shedding load",where a power company will black out some sections of thegrid to keep everything else up and running.

Mains power voltage drop to reduce usage?

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Martin Brown 3 years ago

And a puny domestic inverter will die horribly if it stays on too long.

The semiconductor electronics are certainly capable of that but the transformer will saturate and then get hot ultimately catching fire if the frequency drops too low. Some US kit built for 60Hz only would get awfully hot on UK 50Hz mains. A cheap and nasty US brand of shavers sold mostly at Xmas relied on a 60Hz mechanical resonance for good measure.

Japanese kit can pretty much always be relied upon to work on either 50 or 60Hz since roughly half of their country is on each frequency.

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upsidedown 3 years ago

There us a good map of the various synchronous networks in Europe in

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It should be noted that some areas in North Africa is connected to UCTE. Denmark is interesting, Jutland is in UCTE while the islands are in the Nordic net.

The CIS (Russia etc) has an own synchronous network. The situation in Ukraine is currently unclear.

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Commander Kinsey 3 years ago

Then it must be possible to let it go way below 50Hz. The regulation's a bit daft if some can do it.

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Commander Kinsey 3 years ago

A German device couldn't handle a **2%** change?

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Commander Kinsey 3 years ago

I thought there was a problem with capacitance sending AC a long distance, hence DC to the UK? Yet they're managing AC throughout most of Europe?

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Commander Kinsey 3 years ago

That's just dust from the bombs, you'll get a good view tomorrow.

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Commander Kinsey 3 years ago

What does USA do with it's 60Hz s*it? Or does it do as it does with the rest of politics, ignore everyone non-American?

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Scott Lurndal 3 years ago

Support the largest and most successful economy on the planet.

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SteveW 3 years ago

They're not having to send it undersea though.

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Carlos E.R. 3 years ago

Yes.

That is correct. What he said, was not.

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Carlos E.R. 3 years ago

There is a problem with capacitance and inductance sending high voltage underground or undersea for significant distances, which DC doesn't have.

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Carlos E.R. 3 years ago

Yep.

Well, I wouldn't say that as proof "it can be done". There were consequences :-D

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Scott Lurndal 3 years ago

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Carlos E.R. 3 years ago

...

Oh? I had no idea of that. Different islands, perhaps?

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Carlos E.R. 3 years ago

No, because existing equipment can not handle it. The regulation simply takes into account that equipment, those design constraints, and tells you not to drop the frequency.

Sure, go to your own island and put your own rules, from scratch, then talk.

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SteveW 3 years ago

Except of course that that is DC link - because it is underwater.

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hubops 3 years ago

This one runs about almost 1000 km and transmits 2000 MW < if I'm reading this correctly >

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Lots of very specialized engineering and other considerations that distinguish it from long AC EHV transmission. John T.

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whit3rd 3 years ago

... to which one should add, the problems of corona (which requires fat cables in air) and earth conduction (a leakage resistance that inductively couples to AC) which limit all installations, even airborne lines that don't take the low paths.

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Carlos E.R. 3 years ago

Yes, true. But in this case, the losses using AC per kilometre are much lower, so the length at which DC becomes economical above ground is much greater than under ground or under water.

It is simply a question of calculating all the costs and deciding which one turns cheaper.

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upsidedown 3 years ago

The network issue in Ukraine has been messy for years.

According to

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was disconnected from the Russian/CIS net hours before the Russian invasion.

In March, there is a limited connection to Central Europe.

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Mains power voltage drop to reduce usage?

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