power grids and leap seconds

From: Steve Allen <sla_at_ucolick.org>
Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 11:54:41 -0700

One open question regarding leap seconds has been what to do with
power grids so that clocks with motors that run synchronously with the
AC power will experience 86400 * (50 or 60) cycles in a UTC day even
if there is a leap second. Some reports have indicated that many
grids adjust their frequencies on the day of a leap second such that
such clocks will retain sub-second accuracy.

In light of recent world events on power grids, I'll offer that this
might no longer be considered as a relevant issue. The grids should
just keep atomic frequency. Clock owners appear likely to need to
reset them much more often than every leap second.

--
Steve Allen          UCO/Lick Observatory       Santa Cruz, CA 95064
sla_at_ucolick.org      Voice: +1 831 459 3046     http://www.ucolick.org/~sla
PGP: 1024/E46978C5   F6 78 D1 10 62 94 8F 2E    49 89 0E FE 26 B4 14 93
Received on Tue Sep 30 2003 - 11:56:36 PDT

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