lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein) (04/21/84)
I don't know how it's set up in Canada, but here in the U.S. I believe that the entire grid is synchronized in terms of line frequency. There was a region of Texas that refused to join in as late as a few years ago, but I think that even they may have sych'd with the rest of the grid by now. While load shedding programs help to avoid massive power outages, the interconnected grid can still cause interesting effects -- like the two power "burps" that occurred within a couple of weeks of each other out here fairly recently. Both were triggered by a failure in the S.F. Bay area, and both burps resulted in disruptions through about 4 western states. Most areas only had a cutoff of a second or two, but a few areas were shed to protect the grid and had outages up to an hour or so. [Load shedding is one of the means now employed to help prevent massive, prolonged blackouts (like the great blackouts of the Northeast) in situations of power disruption. By selectively (and automatically) blacking out certain areas, the grid can be protected from having the full load being drawn from fewer and fewer running power plants.] --Lauren--
dmmartindale@watcgl.UUCP (Dave Martindale) (04/22/84)
To the best of my knowlege, the Canadian power grid is thoroughly locked to that of the U.S. Some Canadian generating utilities sell a considerable amount of electricity to the U.S.
levaseur@nmtvax.UUCP (04/23/84)
This is especially true in the northeast (New York and New England) Canada has lots of hydropower that they don't know what to do with in the summer (they don't need air conditioning) so they sell the excess capacity. As it is now, the northeast states are encouraging them to develop more of their hydropower and assuring canada that they will buy it. In the process, they are building more large capacity lines into Canada via Vermont (yes, there's room) to get it to the states. In theory, it's 'supposed' to be cheaper than oil, or at least reduce dependency apon that funny stuff. If Canada goes out, New England and New York could very well end up pretty much in the dark again (only if they don't finish Seabrook, but that is another story) misplaced new englander, roger levasseur unmvax!nmtvax!levaseur
lincoln@eosp1.UUCP (Dick Lincoln) (04/23/84)
> I don't know how it's set up in Canada, but here in the U.S. I > believe that the entire grid is synchronized in terms of line > frequency. There was a region of Texas that refused to join in as > late as a few years ago, but I think that even they may have sych'd > with the rest of the grid by now. If you hook into a power grid, you must be *phase*, not just frequency, synchronized. Dropping a second alternator of equal voltage, frequency and power output across an alternator, *but exactly 180 dgs out of phase*, is exactly twice as bad as dropping a dead short! (This assumes idealized, zero source impedance alternators.)
spoo@utcsrgv.UUCP (Suk Lee) (04/29/84)
> This is especially true in the northeast (New York and New England) >Canada has lots of hydropower that they don't know what to do with in >the summer (they don't need air conditioning) so they sell the excess.... Oh yeah? This is another fine example if the vicious lies spread by "them Yanks" about the wonderful Great White North. Try coming up to Ottawa in July when it's 90 F outside and the relative humidity is 80% We don't ski *all* the time, eh? Ya hoser. :-| -- From the pooped paws of: Suk Lee ..!{decvax,linus,allegra,ihnp4}!utcsrgv!spoo