TNW: Electric clocks in Europe have been running slow for over a month

[China]

Electric clocks in Europe have been running slow for over a month

 

Have you noticed your clocks are lagging? It’s not an anomaly in the spacetime continuum, fortunately.

 

The European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSOE), the body that sets up the internal energy market and ensures its optimal functioning, put out a statement explaining why this is happening.

 

In a press release enticingly titled “Frequency deviations in Continental Europe including impact on electric clocks steered by frequency,” the organization explains that frequency deviations have caused some digital clocks to lag.

 

Many digital clocks – mostly those in digital alarm clocks and in ovens and microwaves – use the frequency of the power grid to keep time. The power grid in Europe runs at a pretty steady 50Hz, and all the clock does is count the cycles in the electric supply. This becomes a problem if the frequency drops over a sustained period of time – which seems to have happened in Europe.

 

According to Wikipedia, the frequency varies with the load on the grid, but the number of cycles per 24 hours is “maintained rigorously constant,” to keep those electric clocks accurate for long periods.

 

The ENTSOE states that a shortage in supply was caused by an unspecified power distributor in South-Eastern Europe. Since the European grid is  interconnected, this led to frequency problems all over the continent since mid-January. News outlets are reporting these problems have led to clocks falling back up to five minutes since then.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[ExoDus84]

That's a bit anticlimactic. I was hoping there was a mini black hole flying through space that was causing minor time dilation.

 

Lame.

[The Evil Genius]

Based on recent elections, they are running about 80 years slow in Italy.