N Cook wrote:


Very few power stations/generator sets are needed to power the grid in the
middle of the night. At some point it becomes necessary to start up another
one and what happens to the grid at that time ?


Generating systems don't just get "slapped on line" at startup, at least
here in the USA. I don't believe you'd find that in any but third-world
countries.

The generator is brought up to speed/frquency and voltage (and
stabilized) to match that of the grid before it's brought on line. Only
then does the plant operator raise output in conjunction with the rest
of the grid providers. It's a constant job to maintain the grid at
nominal levels and requires constant voice and data transfers amongst
the providers.

I'm not going to say that surges don't happen when abrupt loads are
dumped on or dropped, but that's another subject too long to explain in
one post.