this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2024
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Technically, what you described is a rolling blackout. A blackout is when power is totally lost. A brownout is when the voltage sags below the minimum specs.
The power grid will initiate rolling blackouts rather than let the whole grid brown out. Brownouts can actually be a lot worse than blackouts. A lot of equipment will try and compensate and so make the problem worse, as well as cause whole new problems.
On a grid level, brownouts will also cause the frequency to drop. This can cause phase differences, and so cause equipment to blow up (or rather shut down, so it doesn't blow up!)
I've spent a very long time trying to form a response that doesn't let Jill be right but no matter how I slice it, she's technically correct then. Brownouts cause rolling blackouts. I hate it.
She is right. The key problem is she ran with the assumption that we need to stop using EVs and heat pumps. We actually need the grid to pull their finger out and adapt to what is about to happen.
Well sure but that's the case for most things. The increased electricity draw from electric based technologies can run the risk of overloading the grid while government chooses a new hole to stick their thumb in. She's just blaming technology instead of the government like a proper old person.
I remember I was working in a factory when we had a brownout (some electricity pylon had collapsed and so we only had 50% capacity via another pylon and it wasn't enough to run all the factories in the area). Just like you say, the equipment really hated it. Most of the equipment is fine if you just shut it off without warning, not supposed to do it but it's usually fine, but the low but not zero voltage caused no end of issues.
Also all the LED lights decided that the best way to deal with the situation was to just flicker at a really high frequency rather than just turning off, which would have honestly been more helpful.
AC electrical devices often adjust their current draw, based on the voltage. As the voltage drops, the current goes up. This increases the current load, as well as producing more heat. Devices often flicker rapidly between just on, and off. The LEDs were experiencing that.
DC is even worse. Microcontrollers REALLY do not like being browned out. I've seen it smoke components, as well as easily corrupting stored data.