Re: The Physics Behind the Spanish Blackout

On 12/06/2025 7:48 pm, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote:
 

On 12/06/2025 6:08 pm, 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.

>
How? Solar and wind sources are free-standing generators. They don't
need any power input from the grid. They do need timing information - to
set the phase of the AC current that they feed into the grid, but they
can get that from radio transmissions, and - less directly - from GPS
signals.

 All of that is vulnerable to interruption (by Sod's Law, just when it is
needed),  Compared with just switching off a big load centre by pulling
out a lump of metal, it is a complicated and fussy way to handle an
emergency that needs an instant response.

Twaddle. Any real system is always complicated and fussy, and we've being dealing with them for a generation or two now.
"Pulling out lumps of metal" is very old-fashioned, and needed arc-suppressing hardware back when it was actually used.
--
Bill Sloman, Sydney