Reply To: Grid Frequency [mains electricity]

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Ian Parkin on 13/08/2019 14:35:56:

[ …. ]

Bazyle

in the guardian on monday was an article about Tesco’s being able to use their fridges to pump back in to the network to the tune of 50MW ..i’m Not sure what they mean by this perhaps they have big back up UPS’S to keep their fridges going in the event of a power cut

**LINK**

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I find it a little disturbing that, in that article; reducing short-term demand is being expressed as providing a 'virtual battery'

[quote]

The trials were undertaken by Tesco along with researchers at the University of Lincoln in a mocked-up supermarket, built to test whether fridges can help to balance the energy system.

Researchers found that complex algorithms, developed by the software firm IMS Evolve, can temporarily cut the electricity supply to fridges when needed while still keeping the food cold.

These mini power cuts to the freezers could automatically create short pulses of extra electricity on the grid to match any dips in the grid’s energy frequency.

[/quote]

MichaelG.