In article ,
dave wrote:
On 07/18/2011 11:35 AM, Mark Zenier wrote:
In ,
wrote:
On Jul 17, 10:08 pm, John wrote:
On 7/17/2011 6:39 PM, J R wrote:

Power Grid Tampering Will End An Era.
http://www.jimstonefreelance.com
...
Whatever they do with the 60Hz standard is NOT going to fly
unnoticed . Synchronized power grid has worked for many , many years
and many different machines (besides the alarm clocks) are dependent
upon a stable , reliable frequency source . If something works so well
-- then why would somebody want to mess it up ?

Because the frequency shift comes from loading down the grid. And to keep
it stable, they fire up the peaking plants. These are gas turbines or
a big coal plant that they keep on standby. Either way, it's expensive.
This way they can skimp a little bit on that.

The World Radio TV Handbook had notes for each country that doesn't
have grid stable enough to run a clock. Welcome to the Third World.
....
Can you point me to a reference? They've only had "peaker" plants since
the War. It seems if the turbines are slowed by a heavy load in the
daytime they could be sped up an equal amount during lower demand,
averaging 60 cycles per second over a period of a day

The keyword is "could". In a fuel based power system, like on the East
Coast, they could also not bother and save some carloads of coal a day.

Since I marinate my brain in four or more radio/podcast science shows
each week, and a half a dozen magazines a month, I'm having some trouble
remembering where I got it. Possibly "Science Friday" on NPR, at they've
had a couple of shows on the grid and renewable power in the past couple
of years. Or something in "New Scientist".

Mark Zenier
Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)