Development, design and use of ripple control

Many of the earlier patents for ripple control were British, and the development of the single-frequency systems was pioneered in Britain. Nevertheless, interest in these systems lapsed in the UK after the Second World War, whereas in Europe it increased until in many countries ripple control of consumers' loads became standard practice. The paper reviews the history of the development of ripple control, and indicates how differences in time-switch design and the structure of the industry may have helped to create this divergence in practice. It describes the design of the main systems of control now in use, the choice of frequency, their high standard of reliability and their ability to send 1000 or more separate instructions for load or system switching. It also reviews the development on the Continent of distribution-control centres employing ripple control backed by a computer to maintain the maximum demand on the system below a target level set for the winter. This operates by dividing the consumers into groups, and switching them in turn as required to keep the total load below the target level. It also ensures that each consumer receives the energy he requires under his agreement. The economics of ripple control are reviewed, and the variety of applications for a modern sophisticated system are outlined.