Electric systems respond quickly to the sudden loss of supply or demand
Today in Energy U.S. Energy Information Administration
A large region of electric systems, called the Western Interconnection, responded to the San Diego blackout on September 8 in less than a minute. A YouTube video vividly illustrates how changes in frequency across interconnected alternating current (AC) electric systems ripple across such a large area in a very short time.
The video shows the variation of frequency (the number of times a second that the electric charge reverses direction) in the Western Interconnection associated with the San Diego blackout on September 8. An event, which has still not been fully characterized, drove system frequency below 60 cycles per second for about 25 seconds. Interconnected electric systems in North America are designed to operate within a very narrow…