On Sat, 7 Jan 2017 08:25:12 -0700, Brewster wrote:

On 1/6/17 2:48 PM, Leon wrote:



Probably considered safe because DC lost voltage quickly the farther
from the generator the lines went. IIRC there had to be a generator
within a few miles of the consumer. AC on the other hand still had
quite a bight many miles away.





Actually no different. There is consideration of switching some high
voltage lines to DC partially because for the same peak voltage the
wires can carry significantly more power.

No, that's not the reason. High voltage DC transmission doesn't have
inductive, skn effect or (the same) corona losses. AC has the
advantage of cheap transformation from one voltage to another.

A big reason for the switch from DC to AC is the ability to efficiently
reduce the voltage at point of use, allowing the distribution lines to
run at higher voltage with the exponentially lower power losses.

The issue at hand is distribution. AC is much easier to transform, so
higher distribution voltages are possible.