RE: Why pole pigs are rare in Europe

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Steve Conner by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <steve.conner-at-optosci-dot-com>

I think it's all about economics. You have to balance the cost of the losses
against the savings from not running HV lines around the neighbourhood, and
not buying so many pigs. The LV distribution in Europe is actually 3-phase
4-wire 230/400V, that makes it even more efficient again. We like to use
underground cables which favors the lower voltages. And we use less
electricity because we don't have air con.

My house has a 230V 80 amp service, which is 18kW or 7 footers. But the
apartment block has a 3-phase 100A 230/400 service in the basement which
would be good for 13 feet :D In my neighbourhood I've found two huge 500kVA
pad-mount transformers but there are probably more hidden away... wonder if
the power company would miss one...

Original poster: "Ben McMillen by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<spoonman534-at-yahoo-dot-com>

 >I thought the idea of HV distribution was to reduce line
 >loss? It would seem to me that LV distribution at 220v
 >would introduce quite a bit of resistive line loss..
 >especially for higher current services..