Tim Downie wrote:
"Dave Liquorice" wrote in message ll.co.uk...
On Thu, 10 Mar 2011 11:31:59 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

You will get far more familiar with this as more silly wind power is
added to the grid.
I'm not overly keen on this frequency based automatic load shedding
(as in switching off) either. Sounds like a recipe for grid
instabilty if you ask me. Frequency drops, lots of stuff drops off
line, Whe Hey! too much capacity frequency goes up, stuff comes back
online, frequency drops...

And how much stuff is about that can be switched off for an
indeterminate period without warning?

I suspect that in the average household, not a lot but I have a friend who works for a water company and they regularly get paid for NOT pumping at certain times.


He must work at Dinorwig :-)

Whilst there are a few industrial processes that are not critical when
they use power, by and large electricity is currently (sic!) used
BECAUSE it is always there, always on tap, when you need it.

"The train at platform five will be leaving when a squall hits the outer
Hebrides, and we can suck enough power off the grid to get it going, or
when everyone has finished watching Corrie, whichever is the soonest"



Tim