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Beachcomber
 
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FWIW, here's a pointer to an "INTERIM OPINION ON EMERGENCY VOLTAGE
REDUCTION MEASURE" that
was up before the California state PUC with regards to lowering the
nominal line voltage to
117VAC during times of electrical energy shortage.

http://www.utilityregulation.com/con.../02CA13831.pdf

Makes sense that with a lower voltage the demand for power decreases.
However, this only
follows for resistive devices. Constant power loads (like motor-driven
equipment) would demand
greater current and cause increased conductor loss as well as increasing
risk of failure to
the equipment.

Dunno if they ever implemented this; at my house the voltage gyrates
quite a bit throughout the
day anyway so it's hard to tell what the "nominal" is.

later,
L


One solution if there is not enough power to go around is to lower the
line voltage. This is called a brownout.

Another solution is to have rotating blackouts as California did a few
years ago.

Remember that this is only for California where most electrical
consumers are at the far end of the (transmission) line. They pretty
much don't like large conventional power plants in California (be they
nukes, coal-fire, hydro-electric dams, or gas fired units) and are not
building a whole lot more.

Because of this, a lot of California power comes from outside the
state (Oregon, Washington, British Columbia) in the north and Hoover
Dam and other sources (Nevada - Arizona) in the south. There is
only one Nuke in the state and quite a few medium and smaller sized
hydro-electric dams in the mountains. Geothermal also makes a small
contribution.

Beachcomber