[RvdV]

On Saturday (8th of Feb), Baltic countries will disconnect from the Russian power grid and synchronise with the Continental European electricity system. They will operate in "island mode" for 33 hours, and then synchronize with the European grid frequency.

The frequency is a key parameter of the grid. If there is too much load, it goes down, and if there is too much production it goes up. A lot of critical grid infrastructure relies on the frequency being in the 49.5-50.5 Hz range.

I built a tool together with some colleagues to track the grid frequency in real time during this operation over the past few days to follow this process in real time!

If you're curious for more details, there is also a great post on the Estonian TSO's website about the process: https://elering.ee/en/synchronization-continental-europe

[foobarian]

I am endlessly fascinated that the grid frequency across an area the size of entire countries/continents gets driven, at the end of the day, mechanically by countless titanic sized spinning machines that slow down when more load is offered, and vice versa.

[mrweasel]

The "European" grid also expands to northern Africa[0]. The Wikipedia map is a little weird, because I remember doing consulting for an energy company at the time the two Danish grids were combined. I suppose it has to do with transmission capacity, but technically Denmark can route power from west to east (the other way is typically less useful as the majority of the power generation is in the west). Western Denmark also has cable running to at least Sweden and so does Germany, so why it's not viewed as one network seem strange.

0) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronous_grid_of_Continenta...

[emchammer]

The shafts are so enormous and heavy that they must be driven by an auxiliary motor when not in use in order to prevent them from permanently sagging.

[adolph]

For other folks who find grid identity as a shared frequency fascinating, this week's Complex Systems podcast won't disappoint.

https://www.complexsystemspodcast.com/episodes/electricity-g...

[1970-01-01]

Off-topic;

Why does America use 60Hz? I've never found a satisfactory answer.

[zokier]

> They were disposed to adopt 50 cycles, but American arc light carbons then available commercially did not give good results at that frequency and this was an important feature which led them to go higher

"The origins of 60-Hz as a power frequency" https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/628099

Better question is why did Germans pick 50 Hz, I'm not aware of any comparable benefits of having lower frequency

[causality0]

50 and 60Hz were about equal in transmission efficiency but in 1891 Westinghouse engineers decided 60Hz produced less perceptible flickering in light sources.

[Retric]

A better question is why does Japan use Both 60 Hz and 50 Hz in different areas? And that’s really just a legacy from early decisions at different companies when the grid was first introduced, and there’s never been a sufficiently compelling reason for either to swap.

60 Hz is slightly better in terms of flickering, but neither has enough advantages to really be a determining factor on their own.

[SideburnsOfDoom]

Things are the way they are because they got that way over time.

Civil infrastructure is legacy systems all the way down. Once a choice is made, it's hard to change. In the city where I am, some of the design decisions date back to the Romans.

[mmooss]

Whoever chose it must have been aware of the use of 60 in time measurement and its practicality: 60 min/hr, 60 sec/min, 60 cycles/sec.

[clarionbell]

These frequencies are often inherited from whoever was the first grid operator, and electricity producer. Same goes for lot of other parameters.

[bz_bz_bz]

Surprised this isn’t already available. Does Estonia only publish 5 minute frequency data?