Posted on 06/24/2011 11:36:30 PM PDT by John W
WASHINGTON — A yearlong experiment with America's electric grid could mess up traffic lights, security systems and some computers — and make plug-in clocks and appliances like programmable coffeemakers run up to 20 minutes fast.
The group that oversees the U.S. power grid is proposing an experiment that would allow more frequency variation than it does now without corrections, according to a company presentation obtained by The Associated Press.
Officials say they want to try this to make the power supply more reliable, save money and reduce what may be needless efforts. The test is tentatively set to start in mid-July, but that could change.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Don’t worry, the government will issue coupons so that the po’ folk can buy new crystal-controlled clocks and microwaves at a reduced price.
The time to do this would have been years in advance of the “test.”
BINGO!!!
This Administration can’t even make the clocks run on time.
Do these people realize how many devices and processes will be screwed up by this? A lot of machinery relies on induction motors who’s running speed is reliant on line frequency.
I suppose you could look at this in two ways.
1. It’s time to screw around with the public even more and in ways that are hard to detect. Thus messing up individual and public perceptions of everything.
2. Trying to mess up as many reliable and ‘older’ machinery processes so that business and individuals will need to invest in newer more ‘reliable’ machinery. That can also be controlled through the smart meters, oh by the way.
Dear Lord forgive me, I am getting to be very paranoid.
What is this going to do to computers? Or UPC backup units?
In other words: We want to do a half-fast job with more money.
Well, if a "business professor" says it's OK.......
i would not be surprised if Obama wishes for all generators to immediately start putting out 400MHz frequency instead of 6MHz, why?
Just to screw America.
Oh and they do have 400MHz generators, on most aircraft and a whole heck of a lot of military powerplants.
Freakin’ amazing - we brag about our techno superiority and then use a lowering of quality as a “fix”. While more and more stuff runs on DC power and has switched to digital, there is still a lot out there that will become unreliable and/or more short-lived. Electric motors don’t like constant variations or to run at a different Hz than designed for - American appliances tended to burn out fairly quick in Italy due to the frequency change.
” In the future, more use of renewable energy from the sun and wind will mean more variations in frequency on the grid, McClelland said. Solar and wind power can drop off the grid with momentary changes in weather. Correcting those deviations is expensive and requires instant backup power to be always at the ready, he said. “
Next-to-the-last-paragraph hidden agenda money quote....
I think it can get a lot more spectacular than messed up clocks. If the entire interconnect is not kept within a few percent of synchronized, you could end up with destroyed generators at power plants. Common problem with home generators, if not equipped with proper disconnect, grid power comes back on and the home generator is destroyed because it was not synchronized with the grid. I doubt that there are many large (megawatt) gensets sitting in warehouses waiting to be installed, and even those that are in warehouses, are going to take days to install.
Good point.
I was wondering if anyone else caught that.
So this whole affair (which has the potential to be the real Y2K) is to try to accommodate the unreliability of "green" energy. Let's hope when the experiment fails, it doesn't bring down the entire grid.
If Obama is so brilliant, why does he put idiots in charge? (I am sure he didn't think of this one or have even the foggiest notion of what it means).
That’s why one fellow in the article stated that a lot of things would break and we wouldn’t know why.
Well, we know the libs will blame Bush.
86,400 seconds in a day and a variation of 14 seconds in that period. Will that variation impact most operations in any significant manner? I’m not speaking of the most critical whatever they are determined to be but of the normal say household items.
The article focuses on just that and doesn’t seem to address the critical items and what effect there will be on those. If I have to reset things at home every so often, who cares? If the local water plant’s pump motors burn up on a weekly basis, thats another story.
Another great point. And, scheduled to start here in a couple weeks and this is the first that I am aware of that the information has been widely disseminated. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if you are exactly right.
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