I have been trying to get a handle on why TEPCO is having power issuses.
North America, east of the Rockies, has a very interconnected power grid. From Florida to Alberta all the utilities run on the same frequency ( 60 hz) and from what I understand are in sync.
This means that it is possible, if Ontario is short, it can buy from Texas.
TEPCO. Which supplies power to Tokyo and the east, runs at (50 hz). The different frquency is not a problem for most electronics so I didn’t think much of it when I learned this years ago.
What I didn’t know was the west of japan is supplied from a different power company…. Which runs at a different frequency (60 hz).
What this means is, even if other parts of japan has extra capacity, there is no way to transfer it here.
There are 2 or 3 transfer stations and to build another is ¥20 billion This explains a lot to me about why excess power can not be transfered, and why TEPCO is so short ( several stations out of commission) but WTF? I think this is corporate power thinking ( keep ourselve isolated)VS public power utilities (share our resources) – Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone.
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