Working around the clock to keep you on time
Did you know that BC Hydro’s power system actually controls time? Well, sort of…
All power utilities in North America, including BC Hydro, operate the electricity grid at a frequency of 60 Hertz (cycles per second). Electric clocks plugged into a wall outlet are affected by variations in frequency. For every hour that the system frequency runs 0.02 Hertz faster or slower than 60 Hertz, the clocks accumulate 1.2 seconds of time error.
BC Hydro’s Grid Operations team monitors and manages the flow of electricity in our electrical system in real time. In coordination with other utilities in the western half of North America, the team monitors the accumulated time error and adjusts the scheduled frequency to bring the error back to zero, keeping all of us “on time.”
Why do the variations occur? Electricity is consumed the moment it is produced, and variations in the relationship between generation and customer demand (or “load”) cause variations in frequency. A surplus of generation will cause the frequency to rise, while having more load than generation will cause the generators to work harder, slowing them down and causing frequency to decline.
The grid operations team helps to ensure that electricity is delivered from where it is generated to where it needs to go in a safe, efficient and reliable way.
So in some ways, you could say that BC Hydro’s grid operations can actually control time…