On Thu, 2010-06-10 at 14:22 +0200, Electron wrote:
> >The "old" way was you had a light bulb across the grid and your
> >generator. You manually adjusted your generation until the bulb stayed
> >"off" (it would blink on and off if you were off in frequency and it was
> >remain illuminated with a steady brightness when your frequency was
> >correct but your phase was off), which meant you were both phase and
> >frequency matched. Then you flip the knife switch and boom, you're on
> >the grid. After that point the generator stays synced.
> 
> How does this AC system work relatively to the DC version (i.e. diodes)?
> 
> I mean, will the generator only contribute to the power grid, or will it
> work like a engine itself, if the (mechanical) energy is not strong enough?

It will "work as an engine" if there isn't enough mechanical power (i.e.
if you disconnect the generation source the "generator" will be driven
by the grid).

TTYL

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