Why do grid operator have to pay customer to use up the excess electricity to avoid the potential blackout. But can’t they ground it into the literal ground/earth?

Question

Why do grid operator have to pay customer to use up the excess electricity to avoid the potential blackout. But can’t they ground it into the literal ground/earth?

In: 131

Answer 1

Couple of reasons for this, main one is if you ground a live circuit to earth you induce earth fault currents which will cause nearby generation to feed the “fault”. This would then lead to cascade of protection relay events which would cause substations to power down and lead to a blackout.