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Grid problem ?

broadgage
At about 03-00 today I had another power cut, this happens fairly regularly and is not normally worthy of much comment.

However I noted that after the supply was restored, that the UPS was still making unhappy sounds due to "mains out of tolerance"

I then observed the "dynamic demand" website, upon which there is a real time display of UK grid frequency. This looked very unstable with the frequency "bouncing around" a great deal.

There was nothing remarkable about the actual frequency attained, it remained generally within the usual operating limits of 49.8 cycles to 50.2 cycles.

What was however most exceptional was the speed of the frequency variations, less than a second for a 0.3 cycle change, and the number of these sudden frequency changes, at least a dozen such rapid changes in a minute.


I then observed the national grid website "frequency for the last 30 minutes" chart. This showed nothing unusual, but I suspect that the chart has insufficient resolution to display frequent and very brief events.
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    mapj1:

    . . . I must admit I find the idea that the whole grid is speeding up and down at some hundreds of milli-Hz per second is surprising, given that even a small diesel rig is normally more stable than this . . . 




    Well, there will be an element of truth to it. You also need to remember that you have an entire country with things being switched on and off - everything from a lamp in someone’s home, to a train arriving in a station and switching its traction motors off, then later on again. Looking at the “meter” shown on the link you provided lined up quite well with the frequency value we provide to our electricity network control room. When we break away from the UK grid, it can take quite a long time “chasing” the UK frequency when we come to re-synchronise due to the changing frequencies on both systems. 


    Regards,


    Alan. 

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  • 0

    mapj1:

    . . . I must admit I find the idea that the whole grid is speeding up and down at some hundreds of milli-Hz per second is surprising, given that even a small diesel rig is normally more stable than this . . . 




    Well, there will be an element of truth to it. You also need to remember that you have an entire country with things being switched on and off - everything from a lamp in someone’s home, to a train arriving in a station and switching its traction motors off, then later on again. Looking at the “meter” shown on the link you provided lined up quite well with the frequency value we provide to our electricity network control room. When we break away from the UK grid, it can take quite a long time “chasing” the UK frequency when we come to re-synchronise due to the changing frequencies on both systems. 


    Regards,


    Alan. 

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