Re: [RE-wrenches] National grid hertz adjustment

[Roy Butler]

I saw this as well, came over the AP news wire on Friday, June 24th. I've been trying to figure out what they hope to gain by allowing more frequency variation.....puzzling at best! Roy Butler NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer® NYSERDA eligible PV & wind installer Four Winds Renewable Energy, LLC 8902 Route 46 Arkport, NY 14807 607-324-9747 www.four-winds-energy.com Although no trees were killed in the sending of this message, a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced. On 6/26/2011 1:31 PM, North Texas Renewable Energy Inc wrote: This article in the local paper sounds a little like potential trouble for grid connected inverters. I looked around on the NERC www site without finding the report mentioned. Any other wrenches seen anything about this experiment? Jim Duncan By Seth Borenstein The Associated Press WASHINGTON -- A yearlong experiment with the nation's electric grid could mess up traffic lights, security systems and some computers -- and make plug-in clocks and appliances like programmable coffee makers run up to 20 minutes fast. "A lot of people are going to have things break, and they're not going to know why," said Demetrios Matsakis, head of the time service department at the U.S. Naval Observatory, one of two official timekeeping agencies in the federal government. Since 1930, electric clocks have kept time based on the rate of the electrical current that powers them. If the current slips off its usual rate, clocks run a little fast or slow. Power companies now take steps to correct it, keeping the frequency of the current as precise as possible. The North American Electric Reliability Corp., which oversees the U.S. power grid, is proposing an experiment that would allow more frequency variation without corrections, according to a June 14 company presentation obtained by The Associated Press. The test is tentatively set to start in mid-July. Tweaking the power grid's frequency is expensive and takes a lot of effort, said Joe McClelland, head of electric reliability for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. "Is anyone using the grid to keep track of time?" McClelland said. "Let's see if anyone complains if we eliminate it." No one is quite sure what will be affected. This won't change the clocks in cellphones, GPS or even on computers. But wall clocks and those on ovens and coffee makers -- anything that flashes "12:00" when it loses power -- may be a bit off every second, and that error can grow with time. VCRs or DVRs that get their time from cable systems or the Internet probably won't be affected, but those with clocks tied to the electric current will be off a bit, Matsakis said. According to the June presentation, East Coast clocks may run up to 20 minutes fast over a year, but West Coast clocks are only likely to be off by eight minutes. In Texas, it's only an expected speedup of two minutes. Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/06/24/3178359/test-of-electric-grid-could-be.html#ixzz1QOzHwezw   _______________________________________________ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Options & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org

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