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I read in news paper "heavy jerk in power plant due to breakdown in transmission line" what does it mean why does it happen?

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    \$\begingroup\$ Maybe the repairman is overweight and unfriendly? \$\endgroup\$
    – The Photon
    Jun 3, 2013 at 4:30
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    \$\begingroup\$ in engineering terms, the 3rd derivative with respect to time is jerk. 1st = velocity, 2nd = acceleration and 3rd = jerk. I Don't know if this applies here. \$\endgroup\$
    – placeholder
    Jun 3, 2013 at 4:31
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    \$\begingroup\$ Some more context would be helpful. Link to the article? Or is this one of those newspapers that's on real newsprint (people still read those?) \$\endgroup\$
    – Phil Frost
    Jun 3, 2013 at 15:00
  • \$\begingroup\$ I'm guessing it's a play on words, on the one hand it could mean an overweight obnoxious person, on the other hand it could mean some kind of disruption of power or operations at the power plant. But the second meaning isn't clear in American English---it probably depends on some specifics of International English. What country was that newspaper from? Maybe someone with better knowledge of English usage in that country can clarify. \$\endgroup\$
    – The Photon
    Jun 3, 2013 at 15:29

2 Answers 2

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When a transmission line suddenly becomes unavailable (trips due to fault) this can cause sudden frequency change in the system due to imbalance of supply to demand. Some types of plant are very sensitive to frequency and a change of more than a few hz in system frequency can cause significant plant damage. For this reason they are usually equipped with frequency protection and the plant will trip if the system frequency becomes too high or low. The 'jerk' referred to here could be the mechanical effect on the plant caused by the change in frequency.

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In the USA, for a generation plant, jerk is the rate of change of ramp rate. Because the plant jerk rate is limited for mechanical generation plant (the ramp rate is fixed, or almost fixed), a transmission system must have automatic load shedding: even if the plant could ramp up the power fast enough to handle the change, it cannot change the ramp rate fast enough to handle fault conditions.

To prevent automatic load shedding, power suppliers are required to meet minimum standards for Plant Jerk Rate Capability.

So a heavy jerk would be a sudden and sharp change in load. However, the word Jerk is not normally used except for power plant specifications.

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