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Comment by tosh | Hacker News Reader

> If I haven't miscalculated, then this waste means the #Netzfrequenz that there was a sudden drop in power of over 4.5GW. That would be a lot more than a power plant. So junction could get there.

https://twitter.com/netz_frequenz/status/1347537615097049101...

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CNPE Graveline[1] (a French Nuclear powerplant) Cattenom, and Paluel are >5GW, so it could actually come from a single plant (not that I think this is the case, this is just for the sake of argument)

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravelines_Nuclear_Power_Stati...

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattenom_Nuclear_Power_Plant

[3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paluel_Nuclear_Power_Plant

At least 3 large power stations. But is that necessarily a loss of supply or could it be a spike in demand? The UK was famous for demand spikes when people turned on kettles during the break in popular soap opras or football games. Maybe a cold day tripped a bunch of houses to turn on their electric heating?

The drop in the graph seems to be very sudden

related: Water usage (toilet flushes) in the city of Berlin during the Germany - Portugal soccer match

https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/28mmsn/water_usage_...

Fun fact: your water company probably has TVs in the control room specifically so the operators can now when those flush breaks are coming up and ensure the water towers have enough water at those times.

(I interned at a water treatment plant a while ago. Watching the 30 million gallon cleartanks drain when the plant lost power really hit home (at ~6-7 million gallon/hr) how much water an entire city uses.)

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