European clocks slowed by lag in power grid

Millions of Europeans BERLIN — who arrived late to work or school Wednesday had a good excuse an unprecedented

— lag in the continent’s electricity grid that’s slowing down some clocks.

The problem is caused by a political dispute between Serbia and Kosovo that’s sapping a small amount of energy from the local grid, causing a domino effect across the 25-nation network spanning the continent..

“Since the European system is interconnected ... when there is an imbalance somewhere the frequency slightly drops,” said Claire Camus, a spokeswoman for the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity.

The Brussels-based organization, known as ENTSO-E, said in a separate statement that “this average frequency deviation, that has never happened in any similar way in the Continental European power system, must cease.”

The deviation from Europe’s standard 50 Hz frequency has been enough to cause electric clocks that keep time by the power system’s frequency, rather than built-in quartz crystals, to fall behind by about six minutes since mid-January. The problem mostly affects radio alarms, oven clocks or clocks used to program heating systems.

ENTSO-E said it’s working on a technical solution that could bring the system back to normal within “a few weeks,” but urged European authorities and national governments to address the political problem at the heart of the issue.