RE: overload light Re: Pole PIg question

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

Original poster: "John H. Couture" <couturejh-at-mgte-dot-com> 


Ed -

Sorry - I thought the EU charge was for some loading problems with your
Magnifier. I agree the Electric Utility can not charge you for walking
further to your meter. It will be interesting to see how the new digital
meters cope with the variety of electrical loads on the lines these days. I
understand these meters will catch more watts with distorted sine waves so
they will benefit the Utility.

John Couture

-----------------------------------


-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2004 5:37 PM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: overload light Re: Pole PIg question


Original poster: Edward Wingate <ewing7-at-rochester.rr-dot-com>

Tesla list wrote:
  >
  > Original poster: "John H. Couture" <couturejh-at-mgte-dot-com>
  >
  > Ed -
  >
  > One of the biggest problems an Electric Utility (EU) has is voltage
  > regulation on their lines. If the voltage regulation is inadequate lights
  > flicker and motors burn out. There are laws that require the EU to
provide
  > the proper apparatus to keep these conditions within certain limits. If a
  > customer has a load that creates the voltage regulation to exceed the
limits
  > the EU must spend the money to correct the situation. The EU then
attempts
  > to recover its costs from the customer.
  >
  > I have been involved in these situations to design a customers electrical
  > system to meet the EU requirements. One customer had a 4000 HP motor and
he
  > was at the end of a long transmission line. The rest of his load was
small
  > so the motor was the dominant load. As the motor went on and off the line
  > the neighbors lights flickered. The solution was simple and that was to
  > increase the size of the transmission line. But who should pay for the
new
  > line? The final solution was to split the costs between the EU and
customer.
  > The customer paid for more expensive motor starting devices to lower the
  > starting currents and the EU paid for new lines which they agreed needed
  > upgrading.
  >
  > With Tesla coils getting larger and sometimes creating problems for the
EU
  > the coiler should be aware that if his TC causes problems on the electric
  > lines he is going the be subject to additional EU charges. Demand (PFC)
is
  > also a problem but that is another story.
  >
  > John Couture

<snip>

John,

I don't understand your point.

My problem with the power company was a bogus "we can't gain access to
your meter to read it" problem, probably caused by a new meter reader
who was either too lazy to walk the 200 feet back to the meter on the
outside of the lab or didn't bother to turn his head 90 degrees to the
right from the house meter to even see the lab. That's why they tacked
on the $100 charge. They never had any problems reading the meter in the
previous 10+ years and the meter has been in the same place since my lab
was built!

I also wondered how well protected against EMI the new electronic
digital meters are.

My magnifier only draws 12 to 13 KW out of a possible 48 KW supplied to
the lab, which is not an unusual load.

Ed Wingate RATCB