Originally Posted by
Manfred M
On the other hand, standardization does have some advantages; the integration of the North American power grid based on the 120 V / 60 Hz standard has provided great inter-connectivity and internal redundancy in the system. Case in point is Japan, where for historical reasons, part of the country runs at 50 Hz (Eastern Japan) while the other part at 60 Hz (Western Japan). When the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant went off line after the earthquake and ensuing tidal wave in 2011. So far as I understand, there is some limited inter-connectivity in the system via frequency conversion and HVDC transmission. Ultimately, people we know in the west (Tokyo / Yokohama area) had a miserable time for over a year, whereas my daughter's in-laws in Nagoya were relatively unaffected.
The reason for this "lack of standardization" was that Tokyo bought German AEG equipment in the late 1800s whereas Osaka bought GE equipment at about the same time. Neither region was willing to retool their entire electrical grid...