WASHINGTON — A year-long experiment with the nation’s electric grid could mess up traffic lights, security systems and computers — and make plug-in clocks and appliances such as programmable coffeemakers run up to 20 minutes fast.
“A lot of people are going to have things break, and they’re not going to know why,” said Demetrios Matsakis, head of the time service department at the U.S. Naval Observatory, one of two official timekeeping agencies in the federal government.
Since 1930, electric clocks have kept time based on the rate of the electrical current that powers them. If the current slips off its usual rate, clocks run fast or slow. Power companies now take steps to correct it and keep the frequency of the current — and the time — as precise as possible.
The group that oversees the U.S. power grid is proposing an experiment that would allow more frequency variation than it does now without corrections, according to a company presentation obtained by The Associated Press.
Officials say they want to try this to make the power supply more reliable, save money and reduce what might be needless efforts. The test is tentatively set to start in mid-July, but that could change.
Tweaking the power grid’s frequency is expensive and takes a lot of effort, said Joe McClelland, head of electric reliability for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
“Is anyone using the grid to keep track of time?” he said. “Let’s see if anyone complains if we eliminate it.”
No one is quite sure what will be affected. This won’t change the clocks in cellphones, GPS devices or even on computers, and it won’t have anything to do with official U.S. time or Internet time.
But clocks on ovens and coffeemakers — anything that flashes “12:00” after a power loss — might be just a bit off every second, and that error can grow with time.
Time may seem like it’s flying
The North American Electric Reliability Corp. runs the nation’s interlocking web of transmission lines and power plants. A company presentation last week spelled out the potential effects of a change to how the grid is operated:
• East Coast: This part of the grid tends to run faster than others. Clocks might run as much as 20 minutes fast over a year.
• West Coast: Clocks are likely to be ahead by 8 minutes.
• Texas: Expect a speedup of 2 minutes.
