US power system

Ahhhhh, the need for vertical lock.

Reply to
Uncle Peter
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Leaving aside the inconvenient fact that the green tariff was the same price as the normal one....

nPower were the supplier.

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Reply to
John Williamson

It's seen a lot when screens are visible on camera. Or LED lights on cars (which have far too low a frequency and are visibly flickery to the naked eye).

Reply to
Uncle Peter

Agreed. And I've seen what happens to a room of 20 iMacs given two of three phases. It didn't smell nice at all. The insurance gave us 20 new machines, and I bought 20 new bulk capacitors :-)

Reply to
Uncle Peter

This is obviously why NTSC TV uses 29.97 frames per second.

Andy

Reply to
Vir Campestris

How did they manage to lock the mains to the TV pulse generator, then?

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Must make location shooting with battery cameras impossible. ;-)

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

With EDF, green > normal > nuclear.

Even with npower, surely they have to use what they say they do?

Reply to
Uncle Peter

I wonder what they did with the 0.03?

Reply to
Uncle Peter

I've not seen the accounts, but I assume they are not lying.

My point was that they use the same power as everyone else, but cook the books so it looks either green (renewables) or blue (nuclear).

Reply to
John Williamson

It was 29.94 in my day. Inflation affects everything.

Reply to
charles

Don't be sill, I'm taking about a 10Hz beat.

Reply to
charles

It shows taht you were only ever involved with sound.

Reply to
charles

Not lying? Or cooking the books? Either they're buying the same proportions as their customers ask for or they aren't.

Reply to
Uncle Peter

Its not totally meaningless. It reflects te commercial contracts between the energy suppliers, the customers and the power generation companies.

Its a bit like saying 'once you get into a train it all runs on the same track, so who cares who owns it' In reality it does, due to massive government interference in trains, if you get on one that's running a heavily subsidised social service the ticket might cost you a fiver, or if its running a commercial commuter service it might be £50 instead.

What they DO do is use the balancing mechanism to buy on a short term basis power from anyone who has it.

IN reality companies contract ahead for the bulk of their delivery. They then make up the shortfalls or surpluses by trading amongst them selves and or with the power companies.

For example, suppose its a less windy day than forecast, and colder. Scottish hydro power companies can turn on the taps and spill their stored water to the highest bidder, and they do.

AS do gas power stations.

Or if there is a tube strike, the underground can sell its surplus at whatever price it can get.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Well it's meaningless, isn't it. Once the power is generated and shoved onto the grid, to ask which watt-hour came from which source is just stupid.

And what is a supply company supposed to do if the aggregate of its customers ask for more power from a particular source than is being generated?

Reply to
Tim Streater

Which you won't get unless you're using 60Hz frame rate with 50Hz lights or vice versa.

The TV frame rate hasn't been locked to mains for *many* years, as one of the reasons for locking it was bad power supply regulation in the early sets. The HT voltage dropped every time the flyback happened.

Reply to
John Williamson

AFAIK the Hz ain't that accurate, it fluctuates. But the electric board are supposed to maintain a precise average for things like clocks that are based on it (although I don't think anything is nowadays).

Reply to
Uncle Peter

Which is what was the original point under discussion.

The advent of colour (or at least the promise of it) stopped mains lock. BBC2 was never mains locked.

Reply to
charles

No it isn't. What people ask for determines which sources they buy from in the future. For example if EDF are buying 50% nuclear and 50% coal, and 70% of their customers are paying for nuclear, then next year they can buy from a nuclear station instead of one of the coal stations.

Increase the price of that source so less customers choose it.

Reply to
Uncle Peter

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