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It Hertz So Good

“Is anyone using the [power] grid to keep track of time?” asks Joe McClelland of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. “Let’s see if anyone complains if we eliminate it.” The “it” is precisely keeping the power grid running at a 60Hz cycle — 60 impulses per second. It’s “expensive” to keep it precise, says North American Electric Reliability Corp., which manages the power grid in the U.S., and it says loosening the standard will increase grid reliability. The FERC has granted permission for NAERC to “experiment” with power regulation, which will cause clocks which use the power frequency as a time reference to run fast or slow by up to 20 minutes over the course of a year. “A lot of people are going to have things break,” predicts Demetrios Matsakis, who oversees the official time at the U.S. Naval Observatory, “and they’re not going to know why.” (RC/AP) ...They will now.