On Wed, 16 Mar 2011 23:55:11 +0100, you wrote: > I have seen many others, talked and bargained t with many power >providers and thus have a good picture of the power supply situation in >Germany and, though limited, in Europe (The British sometimes refuse to >belong to Europe :-) ).
Can you blame us when non elected European bureaucrats interfere with laws passed by our democratically elected Parliament. Worse thing we ever did was join the EU!! Financially or otherwise.. >We have in Europe > >500 kV to 1 MV DC European compound lines between states and countries >380 kV AC power plant and large city connections >220 kV federal state distribution lines >110 kV lines for very large customers as steel companies etc. >50 and 20 kV for city and local supply and large consumers >(10 kV for low energy density regions, dieing out) >400 Volts for all others > >and that's it - all three phase Y, center grounded, down to the smallest >village, farmstead or house. A small to medium farm hereabouts needs >about 50 to 100 kW at hop harvest time, so this installation is quite >necessary. Neutral is made at every 20 kV / 400 V transformer station >individually by a grounded lead system, connected to the center tap of >the transformer(s) and distributed as the fourth lead, though less in >diameter, in the cables. From 10 sq. mm down a fifth lead is split from >the neutral lead and used as protective earth (PE) in the buildings, >which usually happens at the distribution box at a building's cable >entrance. 230 Volts for ordinary home use is made by simply splitting >off a single phase, each referenced to neutral. The neutral/earth situation can be problematic. I'm a little ways from my nearest substation and there is sometimes 50-100V or so floating on the neutral! We don't have our own ground rods anymore and the old lead covered (and consequently well earthed) cables have been replaced with fully insulated ones. Water and Gas pipes are also now all plastic so no cross-bonding for a ground there either. Our mains is 230V +/- 10%. In reality it's still 240V 50Hz and 415V for three phase. Stuff Europe <G>. >This is part of the basic supplying conditions set by the power >providers, not to get by when erecting new appliances or buildings. And >low voltage lines, i.e. 400 V, with the exception of low density >regions, are all cabled underground, even in our little village. We had >the roof mounted power line on our house replaced some years ago by >underground cable on our own demand (it was an obstacle for the >observatory) which cost about 2000 D-marks at the time, maybe $ 1000 at >the time. I am sure this is the most reliable regional supply I can imagine. Same here - only overhead cables are the Grid system, remote farms and where its absolutely impossible to dig. In the last 20 years our electricity has been off twice, once after a fire damaged the substation - took minutes to re-route the supply, and the other was planned when all the cables were replaced, took an hour to reconnect us to the new main under the footpath. Steve Blackmore -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Colocation vs. Managed Hosting A question and answer guide to determining the best fit for your organization - today and in the future. http://p.sf.net/sfu/internap-sfd2d _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
