Characteristics of the Eastern Interconnection Line Frequency

This paper reports the results of recent efforts to characterize the frequency on the Eastern Interconnection. The power system line frequency has been used routinely in the control and management of generation. A data collection and analysis program was undertaken to enable the characterization of this line frequency over time spans from five minutes to twenty-four hours. The results shown here reveal the range of frequencies that appear on the Interconnection, the nature of the variation about the 60 Hz set point, the spectrum of periodic components present, and the influence on the measured frequency of the averaging time used for measurement.