Clocks may go a little cuckoo with power grid change

FILE - This Tuesday, June 30, 2015 file photo shows a wall clock in New York. Plugged-in clocks may be losing or gaining as much as seven and a half minutes between May and November 2018 because of U.S. government energy deregulation to save utilities millions of dollars, scientists say. (AP Photo/Patrick Sison)
FILE - This Tuesday, June 30, 2015 file photo shows a wall clock in New York. Plugged-in clocks may be losing or gaining as much as seven and a half minutes between May and November 2018 because of U.S. government energy deregulation to save utilities millions of dollars, scientists say. (AP Photo/Patrick Sison)

WASHINGTON (AP) - Some scientists said your trusty, older plug-in clock may be losing or gaining a few ticks over time because of a change in federal energy regulations.

Electric clocks keep time based on the usually stable and precise pulses of the electric current that powers them. In the past, regulators required power companies to immediately correct the rate if it slipped off the mark. However, that precision is expensive to maintain, so last year, the correction part was quietly eliminated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Energy officials insist other standards will keep the time in check, and so far the problem has not amounted to more than a few seconds here and there. However, some scientists concluded clocks could gradually go off-kilter by as much as seven minutes.