Imperial Valley Press

European clocks slowed by lag in continent’s power grid

- BY FRANK JORDANS

BERLIN — Millions of Europeans 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 from Portugal to Poland and Greece to Germany.

“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 builtin 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.

“This is beyond the technical world. Now there needs to be an agreement between Serbia and Kosovo about this lack of energy in the Kosovo system. You need to solve it politicall­y and then technicall­y,” Camus told The Associated Press.

The friction between Serbia and Kosovo is part of a broader dispute that goes back almost 20 years. Since the war in Kosovo ended in 1999, the Serb-dominated north of Kosovo that remains loyal to Belgrade, haven’t paid the Kosovo government for the energy they consume.

A 2015 agreement was meant to resolve the dispute, but Serbia has blocked its implementa­tion.

Serbia’s power grid company EMS blamed the problem on Kosovo, claiming that in January and February the country “was uninterrup­tedly withdrawin­g, in an unauthoriz­ed manner, uncontract­ed electric energy from the Continenta­l Europe synchronou­s area.”

Kadri Kadriu, deputy manager of Kosovo’s grid operator KOSTT, acknowledg­ed that electricit­y from elsewhere was diverted to the Serb minority in the north, but said consumers there hadn’t paid for their electricit­y, causing considerab­le financial burden to the company.

ENTSO-E warned that “if no solution can be found at political level, a deviation risk could remain.”

 ??  ?? In this Nov. 1, file photo high power cables hang from a pole on a field in Hattershei­m, Germany. Millions of Europeans who arrived late to work or school on Wednesday have a good excuse: an unpreceden­ted slowing of the frequency of the continent’s...
In this Nov. 1, file photo high power cables hang from a pole on a field in Hattershei­m, Germany. Millions of Europeans who arrived late to work or school on Wednesday have a good excuse: an unpreceden­ted slowing of the frequency of the continent’s...

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