Andrew Gabriel

Before the Berlin wall came down, there were two continental Europe
synchronisation zones, Western Europe run from Switzerland, and
Eastern Europe run from Moscow. The first was +/- 0.1Hz, the second
was +/- 1Hz, IIRC. The western side was actually very short on spare
capacity (particularly Germany), and the east had lots, but from
highly poluting sources. When the wall came down, Germany was in a
dilema at the time on using power from the east which Western German
industry desperately needed, but seriously pumping up the resulting

Germany and Austria also have a separate grid to distribute power for their
railways,due to the electrification commencing in the 1900s and the
characteristics of motors of the era a low frequency of 16 and two thirds
was adopted. This low frequency is also used in Switzerland and Scandinavia
but they tend to generate from nearby hydro or convert from the 50hz grid
where required.

GH