Greg Jackson

rather than automated systems to balance a grid.

So around the world, the frequency of the grid, it was served for many purposes.

It was an artifact, a product of the fact, you know, we had these big spinning generators.

Now, part of the physics is when there's a very high load on a grid, the rotational speed of those generators slows down.

And that's a signal that you need to put more generators on the system, right?

So essentially... You're sort of bleeding energy, the inertial energy off to kind of keep the grid running.

Basically, it's the physics is when you've got a high load on a generator, then that high load, it essentially acts as magnetism and stuff, right?

But acts as drag on the speed.

Right.

When you see your generators slowing down, well, when you see the grid frequency dropping, you know you need to put more electricity onto the grid to reduce the load per generator, right?

Essentially.

So that was the feedback loop you could literally use to control the grid in the old days.

Yeah, I think it's complicated, right?

The simple thing is, if you keep an eye on frequency in a traditional grid, you know whether you've got excess load or indeed insufficient load, right?

Right.

It's an automatic feedback loop.

In a renewable grid, the electricity is not generated by things that are spinning.

So what happens is you can't any longer rely on the old analog system that the frequency is the signal for what you need to do.

Instead, you need digitalization and access to, you know, you need to be reading what is the load digitally and you need to be able to respond digitally.

You know, for example, by using batteries to be able to either soak up power or dump some onto the grid quickly to maintain that kind of supply and demand balance of which the frequency is an indicator.