Comments by "ke6gwf - Ben Blackburn" (@ke6gwf) on "Power outlets are topsy turvy - but does it matter?" video.
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@Kalvinjj Japan has dual frequencies because they are separate islands, and literally like a century ago one island had a power company that bought US generators putting out 60hz, and the other island bought European generators putting out 50 hz, and it didn't matter because they were small generators and there was no connection between the islands, so one island just bought equipment and appliances from Europe, and the other one from the US.
Then as the grid was developed and more industry and power plants were added, they just kept building out the existing standard, because there was no issue with it.
And by the time someone realized that it might cause a problem, it was far too large an infrastructure on both systems to make the change, since you have to change out all the generators and power plants and motors on everything, so they are basically stuck on the two standards.
Now to interconnect the two grids, they have to use High Voltage DC to bridge them.
And unless you are traveling between the two islands regularly, it's not really an issue, because again, one uses standard European equipment, and the other uses standard US equipment, and China makes both! Lol
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