For example: if a neighbourhood loses power, what happens to the power that the neighbourhood was consuming immediately beforehand?
Is there a sudden excess of power in other places near that neighbourhood?
In: Technology
So most generators out there are for the most part electric motors in reverse, while motors take in electricity to produce rotation, generators take in mechanical rotation to produce electricity.
A generator connected to the grid will have a load, if you ever play with a motor and try to spin it by hand you will notice it has some resistance. If you connect it to various circuits that have more and less load, the resistance actually changes, same is true of a generator. If there is suddenly some part of the grid that collapses, the mechanical resistance of turning that generator will fall, and whatever is turning that generator will start making it go a little faster since its resisting that force less. Since the frequency the generator outputs (usually 60 Hz) is tied to the rate of rotation, this increases the frequency on the grid too, and the voltage because of Faraday’s law.
This kind of thing happens all across the grid and there are many safeguards and measures in place to prevent it. Most commonly of course, there is an agreement whatever is powering the generators has to reduce its power.
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