Mystery of 60-Second Fluctuations in Power Grids Solved

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50314617

The paper has more details: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-026-02144-0

The press release is rather light on details. They found that it is every 60seconds (duh!) and generators (or such). So what exactly is it? (Make and model?)

Seems like they did not find the exact manufacturer or the exact devices and were not able to change firmware then?

> It really was years of detective work

Doesn't seem that complicated from the article though. They say that they immediately knew it was clock based due to the strict interval. With REA etc. it might become easier to proof, but I guess it's a measurement problem that only appears in large networks?

Can someone with more understanding explain why this was apparently so difficult to find out?

i'm confused, why would a system simply checking its own power state be taking so much electricity as to show up on grid measurements? unless they mean that the systems are choosing to start charging the batteries, but then it's a continuous load and not a spike at the start of the minute, right?

>unusually regular

Oh I’m sure there is a German phrase for this.

The water-hammer effect, or in this case electron-hammer effect, is why you don't reboot every Windows server in the data center at exactly 2am, to stagger the load shift over time. Surprised that the power guys didn't realize that switching a presumably multi-hundred-MW load in and out at the top of each minute would cause a problem.

You'd think they'd randomise offsets to avoid a thundering herd effect, like anyone scheduling multiple processes does?

Thanks for sharing, very cool!

> turbines slow down momentarily before accelerating back to their original rotational speed. This increases wear and tear.

Why though? Due to increased torque?