Post by fascinating on Aug 30, 2019 8:37:49 GMT 1
A couple of weeks ago there was a power cut affecting large areas of the country. I don't quite understand how it happened, but I gather that power from a wind farm and a gas power plant both dropped off at the same time. I don't think there was any problem with the power sources per se, it was more to do with the connectors to the grid?
The way it was explained in Science in Action (World Service) was that the 50hz electricity output could not be maintained and that tripped failsafe switches in the system. I thought that power turbines were built to produce alternating current at that frequency ie the turbines rotated at 50 times a second, causing the current to reverse at that same rate. For wind turbines, there must be an electronic method of producing that precise ac. Obviously I don't know how the outputs of all the various power stations are "joined" together to make the same current everywhere on the national grid. It all gets very technical.
As I understand it, the power outages only lasted a matter of minutes. That didn't stop the media making a meal of it, but there again, the railways again showed their lamentable lack of flexibility in that there were delays for several hours, with some people stuck on trains without power for 5 hours. Is it not possible to have electric trains carry a battery back up (or generator back up) to get them moving for a few miles to the next station? I know trains cannot operate without signals but I wonder if they could have some backup there too, (battery power and remote control).
The way it was explained in Science in Action (World Service) was that the 50hz electricity output could not be maintained and that tripped failsafe switches in the system. I thought that power turbines were built to produce alternating current at that frequency ie the turbines rotated at 50 times a second, causing the current to reverse at that same rate. For wind turbines, there must be an electronic method of producing that precise ac. Obviously I don't know how the outputs of all the various power stations are "joined" together to make the same current everywhere on the national grid. It all gets very technical.
As I understand it, the power outages only lasted a matter of minutes. That didn't stop the media making a meal of it, but there again, the railways again showed their lamentable lack of flexibility in that there were delays for several hours, with some people stuck on trains without power for 5 hours. Is it not possible to have electric trains carry a battery back up (or generator back up) to get them moving for a few miles to the next station? I know trains cannot operate without signals but I wonder if they could have some backup there too, (battery power and remote control).
