Re: The Physics Behind the Spanish Blackout

On 6/12/2025 1:08 AM, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

Waldek Hebisch <antispam@fricas.org> wrote:
  [...]

Instantly dropping loads may be possible, but if it is the
only short term balancing mechanizm, then effect on loads may
be nasty.

 That option will become less effective as a greater proportion of the
supply is generated by renewables.  Dropping the load may also drop a
significant proportion of the supply from local solar and wind sources.

That's specious reasoning.
I can contract with the utility to allow some of my BIG loads to be
dropped (on THEIR command) without disconnecting me (and my cogeneration
capabilities) from the network.
Legacy thinking is the wrong way to approach a problem that has
different assumptions baked in.  Some 35 years ago, I designed a
power meter that had exactly those capabilities (a bridge to
internal load shedding kit that didn't disconnect the client from
the network).
This will be a significantly more difficult problem to model as
the number of generators and switchable loads (along with stores)
is orders of magnitudes higher than in the legacy grid.  It will
be interesting to see the sorts of power and load management
algorithms that are developed.
[It is, of course, NP-Complete, so solutions will always be "dubious"]