41 ms·

This is fascinating to me. What is the mechanism by which this happens? The added load causes an average slow down across the population of actual spinning ge

• gefh 6y ago
  Yes, the generators literally have to push harder and slow down.
  • deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
• thatcherc 6y ago
  That's exactly right. Extra electrical draw on the grid (or a loss of electrical production elsewhere) causes the turbines in power plants to physically spin slower due to increase load on each turbine. An (imperfect) analogy would be if you and a friend were biking up a hill on a tandem bike. If a third person hopped on the handle bars (or your friend stopped pedaling) the bike's wheels would slow down, assuming you are putting a constant amount of power into the pedals.
  • jonsen 6y ago
    Tangentially (or maybe tandemially :) this illustrates the problem of synchronizing an e.g. solar power unit delivering to the net. The person jumping on a multicycle in speed must synchronize their feet to the rotating pedals to actually add power.
• nabla9 6y ago
  Most power generators are rotating engines (there are exceptions like solar and and batteries that use power inverters). Increasing load decreases frequency exactly the same way as anything rotating slows down when you increase load. Electric grid is like chain in a bike. Generator producing power leads a little. Loads follow little behind. They are not exactly matched. Like bike chain is tighter to one direction and looser to other under load. Mass of rotating generators provide kinetic inertia into the grid so it reacts very little to small variations in the load. But if the load becomes too high and turbines can't speed up, frequency of the grid slows down.